The Fairy Tail Academy: Lucy's New Adventure
by TehOriginalAwesomeSpaceRanger
Summary: Lucy is sick and tired of running away with her dad, she is sick of being scared all the time and just wants to live like how a normal 15 year old should. So she enters the FTA. Follow the funny events she experiences alongside her friend, Zeref, in the Academy. However, during the path of fitting in, her life takes an unexpected, scary turn. Zeref/Lucy/Levy main other characters
1. Chapter 1: The Escape

This whole idea began because I watched Fairy Tail ova 2 and wanted to know more about this whole Fairy Tail secondary school, but I couldn't find any fanfic which came to my liking so I guess I thought this would be a good idea!  
~I do not own Fairy Tail, the credit goes to Hiro Mashima~

Time after time I would find myself living in a new house with my parents and very loyal friend and maid, Virgo, skipping to different towns every month and changing our information. I honestly have no idea who I am anymore, and I'm guessing neither do my parents.

Oh, I should explain. My father Jude is a business man who created the revolutionary train and oil industry but something happened a year ago between him and their rival business, something he won't even tell me, which caused us to go from a breathtaking mansion to run down motels where I think something bit me yesterday night whilst sleeping... I shudder at the thought as I look at the noticeable bite mark on my waist.

However, I'm done with this running around, I'm sick and tired of being scared all the time and not knowing what could happen if I let my guard down once, I need to have safety and that means being far away from my father: I'm running away. It's been going through my mind ever since mum died and he began ignoring me like a dying insect, I've only picked up the strength to do it today. He was gone for a few hours to do some shopping in an underground marketplace, I already had my clothing and items packed up and collected some money which could help me in the following months; I realise that they'll be the most difficult.

I look back at the room and considered taking the picture of him and I 11 years ago, when I was four. Those were the easy times, where my dad actually loved me, but I'm leaving my past behind me. As I began to close the door behind me I began uncontrollably crying. I've got to do this.

Arriving at the train station, I nervously wondered around trying hard to avoid being seen by someone but stopped right in the middle of the station when I look up at all the train times and the many places I have not even heard about go to. I looked at a miniature version of the timetable which hung on a wall, closed my eyes and placed my index finger against a random place on the board. When I opened eyes I saw one word which would change my life forever: Magnolia. I quickly grabbed a brochure about it and leapt onto the train before it left.

I suddenly woke up, being slowly shook by a train attendant.  
"Miss, this is the last stop, please may you board the platform?" He whispered.  
I shot up from my sleep, took my bags and ran off before he could say any more. I've decided what I must do: I'm joining the Fairy Tail Academy.

Slow and short beginning, but I really wanted to show Lucy's struggles!  
Please criticise me as much as the box will let you, I love new ideas and different perspectives so don't be afraid to write a review!  
I will update as soon as I can, much love!


	2. Chapter 2: Death's Child

**My friend informed me that my last chapter was way too short so I've lengthen this one out to, I hope, at least a thousand words a chapter. Thanks for advice Dark-Angel1997!xox  
~I DO NOT OWN FAIRY TAIL, ALL CREDIT GOES TO HIRO MASHIMA~**

As I impatiently walk outside the train station, anticipating for the last 30 minutes of what Magnolia looked like, a ray of sunlight and heat flashed and blinded my eyes. I sheltered my face from the sun using my hands and observed the dazzling sapphire sky, not a fluffy white cloud to be seen, and stood in awe at this sight laid in front of me. Down a long, cobblestone path were small markets selling freshly made goods to the passersby, lively music accompanied the scene with a few fiddlers, a mouth organ and many flutes. They danced cheerily to their own jolly music and smiled and laughed whenever they could, their delight spread like fire to the people who passed, some joining in a dance, or should I say 'a skipping session'.

Passing by the performers, I couldn't help but grin along with them and embrace their ardour which left a warm sensation in my heart, something I haven't felt in so long, it felt like someone splashed cold water on me as I slept to suddenly wake up in heaven. One of the gentlemen's face, who also observing the band, shone like a star as he spotted me. My cheeks flushed red when he smiled one-sidedly, his pearly white teeth glittering in the sun, and offered his hand confidently. His spiky, messy hair was a deep blond with tints of orange; it was as if it reflected the sun's colours, his mysterious hazel eyes were covered by blue tinted glasses however they still shimmered in the light.

"Would such a pretty girl spoil me with a dance?" He winked. Embarrassment was the only thing I could feel, in fact my face was scarlet all over, men never approached me like this due to my dad- wait I'm not here to think of him! I considered the dance offer. _Why not? I'm here to enjoy myself, right? _ I smiled back and nodded hastily.

He grabbed my hand and placed his other lightly on my waist and began laughing as we bobbed up and down around the town square, which I just realised I had arrived in the last few minutes. I was laughing as my heart fluttered like the wings of a butterfly, any troubles or doubts I had were now gone, and he soon lifted my body up and twirled me around. Despite the moment only lasting a second, I felt like I was flying up high in the skies, weightless as a feather, where no-one could reach me and I would be the first to feel the sun's warm beams highlight my face.

Sadly, this charade was over before I could enjoy it fully but the stranger smiled at me once more and spoke gentle words.

"My dear, you must be new in town because I would've remembered such a face of beauty, what is your name?" He laid his hand along my cheek and was looking straight into my eyes. I giggled nervously and edged away from his bold move.

"Lucy. Do you know where Fairy Tail Academy is?" this was my number one mission; I mustn't do anything brash before I enrol in the school.

"Mine is Loke. Lucy, what a beautiful name you have!" suddenly his voice changed from deep and soft to a higher-pitched and less creepy tone. "And yes, I do, in fact I go there myself. Would you like me to take you there? Even though such a pretty day is better suited for being at the beach, don't you think?" He smirked. Ok, now this guy has turned creepy again.

"The academy, please" I insisted.

"Alright, follow me, it's not too far, it's just by the coast." He sighed despairingly.

When we arrived, my face dropped in awe to the majestic building which stood in front of me. It looked more like a castle, with regal colours of red, white and blue and plenty of finely detailed windows, it wasn't like any school I've ever come across as it sat high and proud amongst the neighbouring buildings... it almost reminded me of my own home. A low wooden fence ran along the perimeter, with a stone base carved with the school's logo in different sizes, protecting the graceful cherry blossom trees which lay dancing on the front gardens.

"Are you going to keep gawping, or are you actually going to enter the school?" Waiting for any indication to move on, Loke raised one eyebrow and tapped his foot impatiently. I snapped back from my trance into reality and looked at him with glassy-eyes. After stuttering something incomprehensible, I stopped speaking and just observed the grassy, well-kept gardens, following Loke through the school doors.

After, what seemed, hours of walking through corridors we ended up at an office door with black, block letters 'M. Dreyar, Headmaster's Office'.

"Master Makarov, someone's here to apply." Loke quietly knocked on the door

"Come in, Loke." An old but strong-willed and wise voice replied from the room, we walked in and to my surprise, Master Makarov was a tiny little fellow, his head just tipped my hips and looked like an elder on the outside, but strength of a fiery adult flickered in his grey eyes.

"Lucy, this is Gramps, Gramps, this is Lucy. I bid you adieu." He walked outside the room and slowly closed the door, leaving me with the petite man who was staring at me.

"Tell me about yourself, Lucy, why should Fairy Tail Academy accept you?" he sat down on the chair, which he could barely reach, behind a wooden desk and motioned for me to sit on the chair opposite to him.

"I'm 15 years old, my last name is Heartfilia and I like reading literature and.. erm.." his eyes caught mine when he heard that name, giving me a daggering, suspicious glare.

"Where are your parents? Where do you live? What's your magic?" My eyes widened. _Magic, what did he mean by that? _

"I, erm, don't have any. I just moved here so I don't have a house yet, and what do you mean 'my magic'?" I forced out honest words, they seemed easier to say to the old man than a lie I could easily come up with, somehow, I just didn't want to lie to him.

"No family? Hmm... And magic, my dear, what powers do you have? This is a magic academy, only wizards can enter this school." He laughed at my befuddled expression, but I was secretly heart broken to hear this.

"I don't know, my father used to restrict me using my magic, Master Makarov." It was true, I had no idea what aura my body released when angry but whenever I experience harsh emotions a sudden burst of magical energy is released from my body and destroyed everything in range. To keep it manageable, he would ban anything that could unleash strong emotions, including boys.

"Well, I'll have to find out what it is, shall I?" he smiled insincerely and called out a name I couldn't recollect but I realised it was a secretary of some sorts as a large, middle age woman with a contagious smile strutted into the room.

"Hold on, sweetie, this'll only take a second." She smiled as she placed her index fingers on my temples. She began to concentrate and her face was creasing with perseverance. Suddenly, she gasped horrifically and backed away from me, her eyes were as frightened as a deer caught under the mercy of an automobile.

"What is it?" Makarov asked impatiently.

"Death, I see death in you child!" she screamed and hurried towards the door, but faced him one more time. "She could be powerful however very destructive, too, Makarov!" the door closed behind her.

My face was surprised and shocked, I had no words for what happened except one sentence which ran over and over in my head. _I'm not going to get in this school. _

Makarov's satisfied smile suggested that he didn't even notice the woman's freaky fit.

"Welcome aboard to Fairy Tail Academy, Lucy Heartfilia." He wasn't too happy saying my last name, does he know about my background then? Oh crap. "You can stay at our private dorms temporarily until you find yourself a home, until then, it's the weekend so enjoy yourself until Monday!" He called out as I opened the door; I looked back at him with grateful eyes to end up witness him, an elderly man, being entertained by spinning himself round and round on his chair.

Slowly and silently, I closed the door like Loke had done, smiling to myself.

**Hello again, second update:  
How about a little voting system? Which characters would you like to see in the next few chapters? Write down and I'll take some votes in! They've got to be in Fairy Tail or the Celestial Spirits.**

**I'm staying strong on this novel and will not stop updating every few or so days whenever possible, hope you enjoyed this longer chapter! Love xox**


	3. Chapter 3: Stuck with Him

**Another chapter, hope you enjoy this one! Any ideas or improvements are encouraged so please feel free to write a review. **

**~I do not own Fairy Tail ~**

With the sudden freedom granted by running away I didn't now where or how to start my new life. For as long as I've lived I've always wondered it'd be like to have my own say and control in consideration of what I do, but now that it has come I don't know what to do with this power. Was this even the right choice? I sighed.

_No time for rationalising my actions, what is done is done. _

Panting exhaustedly, I finally found my way out of the maze whilst clinging onto my heavy leather bags and ended up at the massive, square front door. Once outside I laid my back against one of the cherry blossom trees, exhaling contentedly as I was now protected from the blistering sun's grasp, adapting to the barbed edges of the grass.

Suddenly, a growl thundered from my belly. I tried to reminisce the last time I ate something, only realising that since I couldn't even remember it must have been a long while ago. Frantically searching my bags, I realise I didn't bring any food with me. I sighed heavily and tried sinking to the ground, the pain was unbearable and I felt as if I couldn't move I deemed it necessary for me and starve to punish myself for running away from my own father.

_What if he thinks those businessmen reached me? Oh god, he wouldn't forgive himself for losing me, but it wasn't your fault father, it's mine! I hope he's ok..._

Before I eat, I know what I should do first to commemorate my new beginning by starting fresh in my new room, so I found the dorm key and lifted myself from the ground. Seeking for the dormitory was going to be easy since there are only two: one for girls and one for boys, and they were the small, cube houses on either side of the academy. But which one was the girls' one? They both were similar in design and lacked any sort of name on them, besides the Fairy Tail Academy logo.

Eventually I chose the one on the right of the school and quickly walked up to the considerably large door, I almost ran due to my sudden rush of excitement but I felt the weight of my suitcases defeat me so I slowed to a lingering walk. I opened the heavy door cautiously and entered the building and I could already feel the lack of any human's presence in the dormitory. I guess they're all outside in the sun. "Hello?" I called out from the front room. No answer. Deciding to find a room numbered 33; I chose the left part of the T-section corridor and carefully walked along the never ending boardwalk, checking door-to-door. Even in the inside I couldn't tell which gender this building contained, it had light, golden walls with deep, dark blue tasselled carpets and curtains. Neutral colours, in this case, were no help.

Suddenly, I spotted those two precious numbers on a champagne coloured door. I held my breath as I opened the door without the help of the key. As soon as I popped my head around the door to view my room, an epiphany hit me hard in the stomach. This is the boys' dorm. This is a boys' room. There is a boy right in front of me. From a glance I noticed that he had straight, black hair with jet black arenaceous eyes and pale skin, I especially noticed his bleached skin since he only had his underwear on. My cheeks instantaneously flushed crimson red as I backed to the wall. I screamed and he responded with his own.

"I'm so sorry! I thought this was the girls' dorm!" I apologized, stuttering full of embarrassment and avoided making any eye contact with him by staring at the cream carpet shamefully. "Get out." I only heard two stern words from him however they were so sour I felt like I had bitten through a whole lemon.

"I'm new here, I'm so sorry! My name is Lucy-" I stammered shakily whilst trying to quickly find the doorknob, when I looked up at him his eyes had changed colour. They were now a dark scarlet shade and smouldered with anger.

"GET OUT." He yelled ferociously. I slammed the door behind me, without looking back. I gulped back air which had been knocked out my body, I felt like the room had stolen my ability to breathe so I was more than happy to escape it.

Standing in the middle of the corridor, discontent had overcome my whole body and my mind; I don't want the students using this as a first impression of me so I considered attempting to talk to him... I would have done it, but I don't plan on being mauled to death by that angry teenager, not today anyways. However, something happened which I could not have predicted: the man opened the door and walked up to me, now fully clothed, expressing his stoic but pensive face. His eyes were back to their dusky shade, illuminated in the light.

"Let me see your key." He demanded, holding out his slim but large hand. At first, something told me not to give them to him, yet they ended up in his grip anyways.

"There must be a mistake." He apathetically sighed. "The rooms in the girls' dormitories began at number 41, the boys ending on 40. It seems Makarov might have given you a spare copy of my own key. Hmm..." His eyes wandered everywhere around the room, acting like he was the King of Fiore and I was just some peasant girl, and soon brushed off the return of my growling stomach. "I guess I'm involved in this." He said uninterested, and began to walk slowly down the corridor, his black shirt and jumper with a silver outline shrouded his tall, perfect stature.

"Wait a minute, my key!" I called to him, having to drag my bags along with me once more.

Something about Makarov's expression when the man, who I discovered is called Zeref, confronted him about our room problem, he had a smug smile smacked across his face and I think I already knew the answer before he even spoke.

"Well, Zeref is the only person who hasn't shared a room and since all our girl dorms are full, I thought you two would make lovely roommates." The old man heartily cackled to himself. "There's nothing you can do except try and get along, or get houses for yourselves." And that was it. He shut the door behind our stunned bodies and I began hearing him cheerily hum.

"So," I turned towards him, his eyes were scarlet again and he curled his lips to the sound of my voice. Glaring eyes shook my body to the core and he was now facing me with angry aura, a gloomy shadow arose behind his body and he looked catatonic; this guy was scary. I have only known him for a few minutes but I was already sick and tired of him being so pessimistic, I bet he hasn't even experienced how tough life can be.

"Hey, if we're going to be roommates you can at least pretend to be nice to me!" the words came out before I could think but I don't regret them since he looked as if they rattled some sense into him. His eyes snapped out of their slumberous state and returned to their cold, black circles. Thankfully, that scary shadow dispersed like dust in the wind.

He fell to his hands and knees and began crying. _I'm sorry, I'm sorry... _He melancholically whispered to me before clenching his fists.

"I am not myself." Rubbing his eyes, he slowly stood up, towering over me, and _smiled! _ He cleared his throat and courteously bowed to me.

"My name is Zeref, I believe yours is Lucy. I hear you're hungry so let's find some food for you, shall we?" my eyes opened widely in shock, a surprise would be understating what I felt.

"Oh, sorry, would you like to put your bags in our room first?" He placed his hands over mine until I let go of my suitcase, then began walking forward without me again. I stood still in total shock. In just a few seconds he skipped from one personality to another; beastly and obnoxious to caring and adorable.

_This guy is __weird_.

He turned around and chuckled lightly, "Hurry up, or will you just stand there with your mouth wide open?" I shook my head to clear my thoughts, and then hurried to his side and we began finding our way back to the dorm.

The door opened as he nudged it with his shoulders, he forgot to close it properly when he had a diva fit, and showed me into our room. The navy blue walls eclipsed the room to an extent where my eyes had to adjust to the dark. Also, there was a soft, cream carpet and two double beds at either side of the living room, with neat, wooden bookshelves covering the perimeter. Next to it was an open room with milky white tiles instead of carpet, and elegantly arranged cutlery and clean counters. Neighbouring the kitchen was a bright, petite bathroom, gratefully supplied with a door and a lock.

I could definitely get used to this, especially since that everything in this room was spotless and orderly, it hinted that Zeref was a neat-freak, which is good because I never liked keeping my room tidy.

Zeref gracefully turned around and heavenly announced, "Welcome to my humble abode."


	4. Chapter 4: New Friends

**Here it is! Sorry for being a bit later than usual-lots of exams and revision were in need! To make up for it here's a longer chapter and what say we have a poll, LoLu, ZerCy or maybe another character coupling? Any ideas or improvements are encouraged so please feel free to write a review. **

**~I do not own Fairy Tail ~**

* * *

Whilst the dark, dexterous figure busied himself in the kitchen, I began to unpack my suitcases into the small wardrobe laid parallel to my double bed. I had no intention to apply effort into folding or ordering my clothes neatly so I just tossed them all in and hoped that they would stay in place but I froze when I caught eyes with Zeref. Amongst his cloudy skin and his stoic face I saw his eye twitching with frustration.

"What are you doing?!" He growled at me. I jumped from his sudden aggression and stood still in my spot. "Nice and neat, Lucy, how are you going to live a good life when you are stuck with such a messy ward robe?" He pushed pass me and began folding my clothes, muttering vague words under his breath. Suddenly, he held one of my fancy underwear, by fancy I meant lacy. My cheeks were slapped with embarrassment and snatched it from his slender hands.

"What do you think you're doing? Take your hands off my undergarments!" I screamed at his startled face. I don't know why I said 'undergarments', what an awkward word. He just stood there, keeping his ground, slightly puffing out his chest like a proud pigeon.

"I was sorting out your clothes, that's all." Deep inside, I saw a tint of pink which vacated to his cheeks; he would have looked cute if I wasn't so embarrassed or angry at him.

"I'll fold my own clothes, how about that?" I sighed, relaxing my tense muscles and collapsing on the bed. "Sorry, I overreacted." Zeref blinked astonished at the apology, then forced out words I don't think he's ever said before.

"Sort them out later. Right now, why don't you lie down whilst I continue cooking something for us? I believe you've been through quite a lot today."

After eating a delicious beef stew cooked to absolute perfection, which was given to me in bed as I rested, I sighed appreciatively.

_Aside from his weird phases I could get used to this!_

"So, Lucy, tell me about yourself." Zeref stood up from the small, grey sofa and collected my plate from the bedside cupboard then began to clean up all the dirt and grime he could find. I smiled admirably, finally comfortable and with a full belly in a warm, clay-like bed I couldn't feel anymore at bliss, but remembering my past wasn't my most favourite subject. He then sat back on the distanced couch and faced me, probably forcing the interested look he applied to his face.

"Well, I love reading," as soon as I said that, his approving eyes lighted up to catch my gaze, "I've kind of lived by myself for a while, no parents or siblings." A slight lie, but who could it harm?

".. What about your magic?" He pondered, placing his long legs across the small couch; they dangled off the end and nearly touched the floor. Flashbacks of the scene where the secretary freaked out after trying to determine it flowed through my mind.

"Well, I don't really now what it is." I stuttered. "The lady freaked out when she tested me, saying something about there being 'death in me.'"

"Don't be taken aback by her, she also said that to me when I first joined." He flashed his rare smile which I find I can be easily enlightened by. "You see, mine is a rare and very old Dark-type magic, however I find it hard to control so I believe that's why the Academy enrolled me, so I could use it safely and to avoid Phantom Lord or Grimoire Heart Academy getting access to it."

"Who are they?" I leaned up and rested my back against the bed stand.

"Everyone has enemies, even schools like ours. Phantom and Grimoire are known as Fairy Tail's main competitors." I began thinking about this Dark magic he weld, interested in what it does. "You want to know what my magic is like, am I correct?" He assumed right, leaving a smug smile planted on his face. "I can control shadow, I can create shadow and I can become one." He stood up and sat at the edge of my bed, the top half of his face was covered by his jet black hair and his eyes smouldered a luminous red from the shadows. I felt uncomfortable around this new stranger which Zeref had deserted in his presence.

"Stop it!" I closed my eyes and screamed, unable to continue the torturous prolonged eye contact. When I looked up, his eyes were black and his face was full of sorrow, but I felt he was back to normal again.

"Sorry, I can't seem to be able to restrain it." He ran his fingers though his silky hair and walked away from me. "I apologise if I scared you, I'm afraid my own magic controls me sometimes." He laughed half-heartedly and slowly began to lie onto his bed. There was an excruciating silence.

Since I didn't feel like staying here all day listening to the heavy breathing of Zeref's sleeping body, I opened the wardrobe to choose a suitable outfit for the extreme heat outside. Unexpectedly loudly slamming the heavy doors, I jumped back from the sudden bang. I also heard Zeref ruffle through the bed sheets, alarmed by the sound.

"What happened?" He yelled half-asleep. I told him that I was planning to go to the beach that Loke mentioned when I first met him; maybe I'll see him there too.

"Wait for me, then, after all you have no idea where anything is in this town." He groaned whilst slowly crawling like a sloth out of bed. Then he began to take his shirt off, I was stunned to my spot and asked what he was doing.

"I'm changing into beach clothing." He proceeded to pull his trousers down.

"Stop, at least allow me to go in to another room." I insisted as I opened the door to the bathroom, he waited silently until I fully closed the door. After arriving in the lemon fresh and squeaky clean bathroom, I put on a turquoise bikini and rubbed in some SPF 50 sunscreen I found on the sink counter. Squeezing into the old but still fitting navy blue beach shorts and an orange, v-cut tee shirt, memories of my father reprimanding me for wearing them flashed through my mind, no I can't think of him! Shamefully, I also remembered that I forgot to pack shoes when I left the motel.

I opened the door to find Zeref swaying from side to side with a pained expression on his face.

"Need to pee." He brushed passed and nudged me away before he slammed the door.

"Erm, Zeref?" I squeaked weakly.

"What is it?" his voice boomed from the bathroom. A long pause.

_Just ask him, Lucy. _

"Do you have any shoes I can borrow? I only have these heels."

"You mean you only have that pair? Sure, there are some shoes near my wardrobe, help yourself." I quickly went to the said place and brought myself to his side of the room, which seemed remarkably darer than mine, I think it's the only spot where the light from the windows miss. It felt cold and a shiver was sent tingling up my spine. As soon as I found his shoe collection, I chose the only pair which weren't black loafers or brogues: navy blue flip flops. Maybe they were a present he hasn't gotten to wearing, or he just never goes to the beach. Sure does look like he doesn't.

"Alright, let's go!" I happily announced when I heard the bathroom door shut again. I turned around to find that his 'beach clothes' were in fact long black trousers, with a loose black t shirt and a black with a gold trim coat, which hung around his shoulders as he failed to put his arms through them. He nodded as he slipped on some loafers.

* * *

After a few minutes of walking next to "I always bring a dark wisp of cloud with me whenever I go to the beach", I could finally see the glittering, sapphire blue ocean and the golden sand. I started singing.

"We're going to the be-each!" Jumping up and down whilst balancing myself on Zeref's sturdy arm (I couldn't reach his shoulders) and smiled as wide as I can, I couldn't help but notice him let out a little chuckle and smile. "Oh, come along, Zeref, lose the cloud and enjoy the sun." I peered up at the black cloud, which had lingered over his head, and began to fade.

"Luckily, I put some sunscreen on otherwise I'd never agree to this." The light began to highlight his beautiful skin, pale as chalk but shining in the beams like a rare jewel. Soon, I began to realise that Zeref is not exactly the person who regularly goes to the beach since all the people we passed on the boardwalk stared at him like he was a trespassing angel. When I felt the hard, concrete ground disappear, I invited the soft granules of sand to massage and warm my feet.

"Oh, I love it, love it!" I repeated to Mr. Grumpy, who was staring back at the onlookers. They all seemed to be around our age, flashing their very muscular and picturesque bodies in tiny swimwear. Zeref suddenly stopped and announced that we were going to stay there, only then did I notice I was still holding onto his arm. I blushed a little as I watched him evenly straighten the beach towel across the sand, and then joined him with lying down.

"Aren't you boiling under that coat?" I wondered as I stared at his winter clothes.

"Yes, it is very hot however I don't plan on becoming tan." He closed his eyes and rested his head on his hands. "Then again..." he rose and shuffled his coat off then his t-shirt. I don't know why but I think every girl on the beach fainted a little inside, including me, when he did this. Noticing the attention he received, he smirked then continued his napping, creating a cloud to cover his exposed, paper-white skin. Goddamn him and his perfectly toned body.

"Instead of gawking at me, why don't you go talk to people, I'm sure enough that there are a lot of people from the Academy here." He whispered smugly. I turned my head away and already felt my face turn scarlet red. Even though his eyes were closed I still deemed it necessary to shelter my embarrassment.

* * *

Screams aroused from my left, there was a volleyball game going on between the guys; the girls' encouraging shrieks were ear piercing, however they all looked like they were having fun so I decided to join. I decided to take off my t-shirt, revealing my bikini top, which gathered the eyes of many passing boys, most of whom received slaps from their girlfriends or cheered and whooped at me. Something I kind of expected from guys my age.

Smoothly trying to fit in the little group of bikini-clad girls, I squeezed next to a blue haired girl with alert nutmeg eyes; she was quite petite in her orange swimsuit but so pretty!

"Hiya." I smiled at her, thankfully she smiled back

"Hey, you new here?"

"Yeah, how'd you know?" I still displayed my smile. _This was going great!_

"'Cuz you would know to take a step back when Natsu and Gray are against each other." She laughed and pulled my arm so I would take a step back.

"That's Natsu and his teammate Gajeel." She pointed to a salmon-haired boy with indigo eyes then to a spiky, black haired one who was exceptionally taller and larger than Natsu, but not as swift. "Against them are Gray and Loke." A tall, dark blue (almost black) haired boy glanced at us for a second when he heard his name though quickly snapped back into the game.

When I heard Loke's name I glimpsed at the familiar face and his deep orange hair, I noticed his hazel eyes lacked their blue tinted glasses. They all had extremely athletic bodies, especially Gajeel, and wore swim shorts. Never in my life have I seen so many boys my age with such big bodies.

"My name's Levy, what's yours?" She glowed and shook hands with me.

"Lucy." I replied.

"Come on boys, I think the girls should have a go now, we have a new girl who can be with Levy." A tall brunette with a revealing green swimsuit called out, causing the groan and moans of the annoyed teenagers.

"It's a draw, Natsu." Gray smirked, which seemed to enrage the pink-haired boy.

"It's not over yet, ice-freak!" He growled, and then they began arguing off the pitch with the restraints of Loke and Gajeel.

"Come on, Lucy, you're with me." Ignoring the argument, Levy ran to one side of the pitch and looked back at me.

"We're up against..." Suddenly she was smacked to the ground after Natsu pushed Loke towards her.

"Oh shit! Levy, are you ok?" Many voices asked the fallen body, who began laughing on the ground.

"No sweat, I'm fine!" Loke gently pulled her up and dusted the sand off of her body. I joined the crowd and asked if she was alright which caught the gaze of every single person, including the brunette and green haired women. Loke spoke up first.

"This is Lucy she's going to be in the Academy with us, pleasure to see you again." He winked at me. I smiled shyly.

"Hi." I waved weakly to everyone.

* * *

Soon, I discovered the names of the brunette, called Cana, and the teal-hair woman, Evergreen. When we all began chatting, they all seemed like absolutely lovely people and it was easy to get along with them, especially Levy who I discovered was also a bookworm.

"Lucy, huh, you seem really cool! What's your magic?" Natsu grinned.

"I actually have no idea-" my sentence fell short when I suddenly felt a cold, tight grip on my arm, I turned around to discover Zeref, who I've never seen so distraught before. I noticed Gajeel walked away.

"Lucy, let's go." Zeref urgently demanded, brutally pulling me away from my new friends who all shared confused faces.

"No! You said to meet new people and I have so..." He quickly interjected again.

"I'm not _asking _you, Lucy!" He raised his voice, snarling like a vicious snake.

"What the hell, Zeref?" I snatched my arm away from his constrictive grip. "What's your problem?"

He looked over at Natsu and they both exchanged macabre glares, it felt like time had frozen between them two.

"Nothing." He broke eye contact whilst shoving his coat on, and then clustered his t-shirt and towel in a bunch, which contradicted his personality completely. "Now, let's go." He grabbed me again and dragged me forward in an angry rage, I looked back to let out an apologetic face to everyone. They all looked shocked, except for Natsu, whose face crumpled up in a furious frown at Zeref.

_I wonder what their problem was. _

* * *

**Remember to vote which coupling you would like to see in this story! Hope you forgive me for late update, love xoxo**


	5. Chapter 5: Shadow Walker

**Whoop whoop, another chapter is here! This one is a bit serious but bear with me: it's all in good intentions. Hope you enjoy! Don't forget to review any opinions and ideas J**

**~I do not own Fairy Tail ~**

* * *

Being heaved around town like a rag doll was not exactly my most appealing way to be introduced to the area, especially since Zeref refused to explain, or even talk, about where we were going. Concerned looks were given to me by shopkeepers and browsers as Zeref persisted on dragging me halfway around Magnolia, ignoring my hesitation.

As we began to pass more and more discreet and rundown areas, I began to worry.

"Where are you taking me?" I asked furiously, it wasn't nice parading around town in just my bikini and beach shorts; he didn't even allow me to grab my shirt. Suddenly, he swung me into an alleyway and trapped me between his hands and leaned closer towards me. His glaring eyes glowed red and his face crunched up in an intimidating fashion.

"Zeref..." I whimpered.

"Shh..." he snapped, still closing in on me. I noticed that the comforting light around us was dimming until we were plunged into a complete darkness. "Just be quiet for a second." He whispered so softly that I could barely hear him, then he placed his slim hands around my mouth. My heart leapt out of my body as I breathed in without being able to breathe out.

_I've only met this guy a few hours ago and now... oh god, what is he going to do? I'm so stupid for trusting him this easily!_

The heavenly light came back and he walked backwards away from me, his eyes were back to their normal darkness but his body still looked tense.

"He's gone." He announced simply.

I fell to the floor and began crying, soon pathetically shrivelled to the floor and placed all my weight on the brick wall.

"What's wrong, Lucy?" He placed his hands around my shoulders and crouched down near me, I wanted to yell at him but my body was set on crying. When I looked up to him, his eyes were dazed.

_Does he not realise what he just did?_

"You can't just do that, Zeref!" I cried, swatting his hand off my shoulder.

"Do what? I was helping you."

"It looked like you were helping _yourself._" I grumbled, he began to understand and he sighed.

"I'm not like that but now I realise that it must've shocked you quite a bit." He contemplated. "Trust me if I didn't do what I just did, you would be entwined in an affair I wouldn't want you to be involved in."

"Which is?" I sniffed and looked back up at him. He shook his head and reached his hand out to me; I grabbed it and stood up with his guidance.

"Just mentioning it would get you involved. Come on, let's go." He pulled me forwards, but I wouldn't budge. I felt so embarrassed just being in my beach clothing, which leaves nothing to the imagination, and that the warm ball of light was already fading behind the horizon. He walked up to me and slid his long, black coat around me and then he straightened out his black v-neck and shuffled into it.

"Thanks." I smiled gratefully and held the coat around me; it smelled of him and was still warm from his bare body, which just thinking about made me blush again.

"Let's go and get your shirt."

* * *

When we arrived to the beach, the blue skies were now pitch black with specks of glittering stars and the calm sea reflected its melancholy. We were looking for almost 20 minutes without any luck before Zeref decided that we should go back before curfew (which was in 10 minutes).

"How about I buy you a new one tomorrow? Some of the shops will be open." He asked, which I considered for a moment but refused him to spend money on me. "Oh no, I insist." He smiled at me.

"Thanks, Zeref. What an eventful first day, huh?" I scoffed as I looked back at what happened today... I forgive Zeref too easily.

Abruptly, he froze to the spot with his eyes wide open and he seemed to be observing something in front of us. I couldn't see anything through the darkness but I guess a Shadow Walker, like Zeref, could. He violently pushed me into a shrubbery, leaves and thorns began scratching and tearing at my skin. The sudden pain was unbearable but I felt like Zeref was trying to hide me from something so I decided to swallow my scream.

"I told you to give up already, scum." His bitter voice spat out those words as soon as the echoing footsteps stopped only a few meters away. I desperately wanted to move to look up at their faces however, I realised that the shuffling would create too much noise and movement.

"Charming as ever, Shadow Walker." A deep voice boomed smugly, with mumbles of agreement in the background, they all sounded quite old maybe thrice my age.

"I'm not in any mood talk to the likes of you; now leave Magnolia for good this time!" Zeref demanded angrily.

_Who are these people? What do they want with Zeref? Why does Zeref want me to hide from them? _

"Ohh, so now _he's _starting to make the commands?" The deep voice laughed heartily, I'm assuming he must be the leader since he talks the most.

"Hey, who's this?" A worryingly close voice called out, to which I then felt a meaty hand around my exposed ankles and was dragged out from the bush. I grabbed onto the long coat Zeref gave me for dear life so it'd cover me from unwanted eyes and began to scream. Dirt and pebbles were rubbing and scratching my back until he fully exposed me from my hiding spot, leaving me on the side of the road whilst the bulky silhouettes surrounded me. Zeref looked like he spotted death in the face, shocked to his core and full of mental seething.

"Got yourself a nice looking girl." The leader, who was the tallest out of the four men, snickered. It seemed like I couldn't move, I just laid there completely paralyzed.

"Leave her alone, she has _nothing _to do with this." Now Zeref was pissed off, I could see his eyes glowering bright red.

"But how could I just ignore such a pretty face?" The man forcefully snatched me from the ground and wrapped his arm around my waist, pulling me nearer to him, and then slid the other slowly up to my neck and began lightly choking me.

"Zeref..." I choked out from my constricting throat.

"Let go of her, you fiend!" Zeref infuriatingly growled as his face suddenly developed into a catatonic, demonic state with his sharp teeth gleaming in the moonlight. The men cowered a bit as a sonic boom emitted from his body.

"Yes! Show us your true power Shadow Walker!" The man who held me shouted eagerly. Wisps of ink-like smoke shrouded Zeref, who began to levitate off the ground, increased into a threatening sphere.

"Take your hands off of her." A very deep voice replaced Zeref's normally cool and collected articulation. The man stubbornly refused which made the demon even angrier, the black wisps exploded into a thousand darts and sank through the skin of the men, completely avoiding me, creating sickening sounds of flesh being sliced and punctured.

The grip around me loosened and I fell to the floor, panting for more air to satisfy my once deprived lungs. Despite the fact that all of the victims were surrendering, as they tossed and turned on the floor in complete agony, Zeref began to release a black, ominous smoke, blacker than the night sky, which slowly approached the unsuspecting men. They began choking as it invaded their bodies and replaced their oxygen and energy with poison.

I looked up at Zeref, he was smiling sardonically as he observed the torture he was inflicting upon the others, whose deafening screams seemed harmonious to his ears. I couldn't just stand and watch him take away their lives, even if they are horrible people; he was going to kill them unless I try stopping him.

"Stop it!" I screamed at him with my utmost strength. "Look at what you're doing, it's wrong!" He didn't seem to notice my plead for sanity. The shadow around his body stretched out and whatever was unlucky enough to fall victim to its grasp began to shrivel up and crumble into an arid brown, even affecting the concrete around him. I crawled away from it, trying to avoid its deadly grip, but failed and it surrounded my body. To my surprise, it had no effect on me.

"ZEREF!" I shrieked. Suddenly, his head was knocked out of his catatonic state and quickly realised what he was doing. He reeled in all the darkness he created and smashed to the floor, failing to move. Speculating that the deadly shadows had gone, I ran up to his lifeless body and rolled him over, his eyes were eerily peaceful. Carefully, I checked to see if he was breathing by holding my breath and placing my cheek near his mouth, I felt a light breeze brush against my skin.

"Come on, wake up!" I delicately patted his face to try wake him up but his limp body wouldn't move. To check whether the men were still alive I glanced over at them, they weren't moving either, however, I also think they weren't breathing.

_Shit, shit, shit! How did I get myself involved in this? All I know is that I need to get to the dorms to find help and fast._

Struggling to move his limp body, I eventually managed to throw his arm over my shoulder and wrapped mine around his waist to support some of his weight. Thankfully, he was not as heavy as I thought, despite his staggering height, so I stumbled forwards as his legs dragged along the road, eventually passing the lifeless bodies.

* * *

After collapsing a few times from complete exhaustion, I finally made it to the Fairy Tail Academy's dormitory; however I came face to face to the locked, golden gates.

"Someone help." I croaked feebly, falling hopelessly to the floor, collecting my energy as I tried to relax.

"There's... another way to enter." A pitiful voice arrived from Zeref, who lay still next to me.

"Are you okay? Hold on a few more minutes, I'll get you some help, j-just stay there." I aimlessly walked away from him. He swiftly seized my hand; I looked at his pale, solemn face and his onyx eyes began pouring out tears.

"Lucy... did I kill those people?" He began sobbing hopelessly. Just the sight of this strong, independent boy breaking down in front of me broke my sombre heart apart.

"No, they killed themselves. Please don't cry." I returned to his side and placed my arm around him, deciding that the best decision was to comfort this unbalanced teenager. He rested his head on my bulbous chest, which I almost resisted but it wasn't the time for being self conscious.

"Oh God, I'm a murderer!" He voice broke as he cried out. I didn't know what to say anymore so I just cradled my arms around his shaken body and held him closely, and then he wrapped his arms around me tightly and continued to uncontrollably sob until I couldn't contain the disheartening scene anymore.

"I need to get you help, show me how we can get in." I placed my hand on his head and stroked his silken, black hair. Slowly, he removed his hand from my body and raised it above the ground and stopped sobbing to concentrate. Familiar dark shadows surrounded our bodies and we gently rose above the ground. He cried out in pain as his magic hurriedly brought us over the gate to the other side until we vigorously dropped to the floor after he fell unconscious again. The wind was knocked out of me as his limp body landed straight onto my body, his closed eyes only a few millimetres from mine.

"Well, well, well, a bit of an unorthodox place to do it." I jolted my head to find Loke cheekily grinning at us with his arms crossed and raised eyebrows.

"Please, help him." I begged desperately, unable to move. Loke's face looked disgusted.

"What do you mean?" he looked absolutely horrified at my request. "I don't roll like that."

"Dammit, Loke, get him to an infirmary now!" I screamed irritably at the teenage boy, who now looked embarrassed as he soon realised the problem when I managed to roll Zeref off of me (lacking any help from Loke) and witnessed the boys' unconsciousness. Sense slapped him in the face and he hastily decided.

"We'll take him to Gramps."

When we finally arrived at Makarov's room, Loke carrying Zeref, we knocked on the door. Unfortunately, no one answered and therefore we decided to open the door, which surprisingly was unlocked. The room was very small to suit the Master's stature, with generous splashes of orange and blue furniture, brightening the room with a cosy, relaxing feel.

As we reached a door, which was most likely to be the master bedroom since a low humming voice could be heard from the other side, Loke gently opened it. Our eyes widened in horror to see what the headmaster of our school was doing. He was comfortably dressed in light blue pyjamas with a bobble hat night-cap which just covered his receding hair line, singing while he tucked a fuzzy, teddy bear in his bed.

I couldn't believe that this man, the superior master of this amazing school, was acting like I once did when I was five with my soft toys, and he still didn't feel our presence. Loke cleared his throat to disrupt this disturbing scene of unusual affection.

"Gramps?" He almost cracked out in laughter but held it back. Makarov jumped at the voice and turned around to look at us, clutching where his heart was for dear life. "We have a bit of a problem. Lucy, can you explain?"

And so I did, it took me an excruciating ten minutes to tell Makarov today's events (excluding Zeref and I's embrace at the gate, the alleyway and the probability that Zeref killed the men) but I thought leaving out those unnecessary details was for the best. Makarov began nursing Zeref, who lay next to the teddy bear on Makarov's bed, with this strange machine which looked like a vacuum cleaner but it was attached to his mouth and began flowing a strong magical aura to him.

"This isn't the first time Zeref has had difficult confrontations with the likes of those men, they hunt him down relentlessly and haven't stopped."

"Who are they?" I impatiently asked, disrupting the Master's explanation.

"They are a squad of rogue wizards called the Ultimanious Force, created seven years ago, who develop their powers by killing a wizard and absorbing the aura their body temporarily left, the more aura they steal, the stronger they get.

However, they especially want Zeref's power Shadow Walker for a specific reason, one which I still have yet to learn, but every time they send their men after him they always get beaten, but they seem to persist nonetheless. The only reason I've come up for their motive is that he's the only one in the world to possess it, we think anyways, and it is incredibly powerful when controlled correctly, which Zeref cannot achieve yet.

Some of the parents here are presumed to be a part of the Ultimanious Force, however there is no evidence to prove that. All I can say is that after every attack they launch on him, he always seems to be wrecked of magical energy and constantly faints."

Everything seems to make more sense, but I was still very shocked to find out about the possibility of a parent being a part of this evil organisation and especially that Zeref is considered that strong.

I looked at his slumberous body, _so peaceful and beautiful. _ I didn't want to admit it, but deep down inside of me, a voice proclaimed that the evil men who harassed this angelic boy deserved what had come to them.

Only now did I realise that entering this school might've put me in more danger than I previously was situated in.

* * *

**Ideas and opinions are openly welcomed! Hope you enjoyed this, despite the serious atmosphere! Love xox**


	6. Chapter 6: Bruised

**Not much to say here besides 'Which characters do you want to see in the next few chapters?' Don't forget to review any opinions and ideas J**

**~I do not own Fairy Tail ~**

As soon as the magical aura vacuum stopped blasting energy into Zeref, Makarov carried it away and put it away in another room, stating that all he needs now is to rest. Immediately, I stood up to face the old man.

"Sir, can I stay with him?" I anxiously asked the petite figure, who looked as if he considered it and tried reasoning with it inside his head.

"Of course, both of you have gone through a lot. Remember he needs to rest." I agreed and nodded my head then sat back down on the wooden chair which lay near Zeref. I've never felt so much distress for a person in my life, not even when my mother died; then again I never really saw my mother, or even remember what she looked like, due to her very early death and my always-wondering infantile age. In those cases, ignorance was bliss.

Makarov tried to sneakily grab his teddy bear unnoticed, figuring that I couldn't see him he quickly snatched it and put it underneath his shirt, but I smiled to myself as I caught him doing the act in the corner of my eye.

"I think I'll go and stay in Professor Mirajane's dorm." The Master chuckled vaingloriously and quickly ran out the room, leaving tread marks from his sprinting little feet. I laughed at the scene as he clenched onto his dear teddy bear, realisation hit me when I licked my extremely dry lips: I needed hydration. When I opened the door, I had nearly forgotten that Loke was waiting patiently in the living room and we caught eyes.

"Gramps left in a hurry." Loke laughed half-heartedly, I looked away slowly and approached the kitchen to pour myself a glass of water. Within seconds I greedily gulped down the whole glassful and went to refill it again but I heard the door close behind me which scared me as I dashed around. It was Loke. _Of course it was, who else could it of been?_ His face was unusually melancholic and calmly approached me.

"Lucy... were you hurt?" It looked like that sentence was the most difficult and painful thing he's ever had to say. I didn't answer. _He already knows the story, why is he asking me again? _"Did they touch you?" He strenuously forced out of his mouth whilst clenching his fists.

"God no! They just hurt Zeref." My voice began wobbling hysterically, alongside my weakening voice my knees lost all tension and I quickly fell to the floor. Loke leapt to my side and supported me with his arms, then leaded me to the couch. I had tried so hard to swallow my sadness but I couldn't contain it anymore and I began crying helplessly as Loke laid me on the couch and then wrapped his hands cosily around my shaking body.

This carried on for a while until my eyes dried out and I lost all my energy, I was still snuggled into Loke's warm chest and he was gently stroking my arm.

"Loke, c-can you leave me alone please?" I sniffed and looked up at him, he understood and let himself off the couch.

"I'll be in the other room."

"No, can you leave me in this dorm?" I just wanted to be completely alone without any person around me, excluding Zeref's comatose body, and just drift off into a satisfying slumber. At first, he completely rejected the idea but he looked at my desperate, sullen face and regrettably left.

"Sleep well, my Lucy." He soothed before closing the door.

The couch was entirely too small for me to lie on, let alone sleep, so I opened the bedroom door to find Zeref on one side of the king sized mattress. Even if the Master is so tiny he requires proportionate furniture, he still had a massive bed, how strange.

I walked into the en-suite bathroom and looked at the mirror to see what kind of monstrosity I resembled. Only a few scratches around my arms, face and legs from the thorny bush but my neck began aching and stinging as soon as I tensed my muscles, I pulled down the collar of the black coat and revealed some bruises around my neck. _Crap, they stick out a mile away and they obviously look like finger marks, maybe that's what Loke was worried about. _

Refreshing cold water splashed on my face as I cleaned off all the dirt and grime on my body using the tap in the sin, then used my wet palms to rub off the mess on my arms and body and soon I felt as if I hadn't run through a mud heap. However, there was nothing I could do with my birds' nest of a hair, which ran in all directions with muck and small pebbles gathered everywhere, except try shake all the gunk off and run my fingers through it.

Once I felt like I was cleaned up enough, I entered the bedroom again and took off the majestic coat, revealing my bikini once more, but I noticed that the ends were shredded and torn. If Zeref liked this coat as much as I do, then he'd be really sad to see it ruined. I mournfully folded it and placed it on the wooden chair I sat on when I foolishly waited for Zeref to at least open his eyes.

Promptly, I cautiously grabbed the duvet cover and slide underneath it and laid my head on the plump pillow, careful to avoid any sudden movements in case I awoke Zeref. I sighed delightedly and began melting into the soft, cool mattress, turned to my side and looked at him. He looked so peaceful despite the terrible mishaps he's been through, including the weight of those men's deaths on his shoulders, I was almost jealous of his oblivious state. My eyes drifted off to sleep whilst I still faced him.

* * *

When I woke up, I immediately noticed that during the night my arm managed to swing around and become wrapped around Zeref's waist. I gasped and quickly snatched it away, holding my arm in shock, the sudden movement seemed to wake him up and he opened his eyes looking straight at me. His lips curved at the sides as he weakly smiled.

"Good morning, I was wondering when you were going to wake up." _Wait, does that mean he was already awake when my arm was unexplainably hugging him?_ I turned away and my face heated up with embarrassment.

"I-I'm sorry!" My face flushed as red as a tomato as I tried to cover my mortified face.

"Don't worry, it was actually very heart warming to wake up to that." He chuckled lightly. _Nooo, I'm so embarrassed, why did I do that, stupid arm! _ "But when did we arrive at Makarov's?" As soon as I was confident that my face was back to its normal colour, I began to explain what happened the night before, except for Loke's confrontation, and his face soon dropped when he realised that I knew the situation he was in. Suddenly he gasped and pushed my hair back, revealing the rest of my bruises, and his face crumpled up angrily.

"That bastard did that to you." He sighed, releasing his anger in a sorrowful exhale. I uncomfortably rubbed my neck and brought my hair forward again. "Understand me, Lucy I didn't want you to be involved in this. This was _my_ problem." I shook my head when he brought it up again.

"How about we never talk about it again? I don't want to ruin a potentially fantastic brand new start at life." I suggested which he happily agreed to.

"Let's go back to the dorm so you can take a break from beach clothing, as will I." He stood up with a sudden burst of strength and revival and then forced me up with him, ignoring my sceptical moans of being taken off this absolutely comfortable mattress. Although, he wouldn't leave until he perfectly made the bed and folded some of Makarov's clothing which I daren't look at.

* * *

As we walked towards our dorm, not only did we receive a wide range of reactions towards my partial nudity and Zeref squashing up very close to me to avoid anyone spotting my exposed bruises; we earned a lot of icy stares. I had to cover up as much of my scraped legs and face as I possibly could, including half my eyesight, causing me to be blindly manoeuvred to our dorm room. Yes, I tripped and fell over... A LOT.

"Don't mind them, Lucy, they're just not used to me being around people, understand?" Zeref tried to ease my discomfort but it was folly, I was self-consciously staring back at the gawking eyes until we eventually arrived at our dorm room.

"Did you see the looks they gave me? They could see the scratches and my messy hair and my lack of clothes! I could just feel what they were thinking: slut, whore, tramp." I cried out as soon as he closed the door and just collapsed onto the couch.

"Don't fret, come now, they weren't thinking of you like that, they are decent people." He sat next to me and awkwardly rubbed my back to try comfort me. "Well, most of them." He silently added however I could still hear it.

I could tell he knew his coat was tattered at the ends and torn in the back and that he was probably heartbroken when he kept looking at it, so I took it off and folded it nicely and placed it upon the glass table in front of us.

"I'm sorry." I finally forced the words out. I didn't know whether I should keep to the unpleasant silence or break it with a pitiful apology. He nodded and shook his head.

"I have many others like it I won't be missing it too much." He grabbed the pile and dropped it in the bin in the kitchen. When he walked back he looked all over my body me thoroughly. "Did Makarov not treat your wounds?" He crouched down in front of me and held my left knee which had a massive cut across it. Yesterday, I guess I hadn't noticed most of the lesions which covered my body; this made me even more insecure about what the students could see.

"No." He sighed distastefully and walked over to his side of the room, where he opened the bedside table drawer with a red cross imprinted on it and brought back a first aid kit.

"Let me clean those out, after all, you were on the ground and who knows what could've infected those open cuts. Remember that there is a first aid kit in every room in the drawers with pharmaceutical crosses on them." Something I definitely expected from him. "They're too dirty for me to work on; can you have a shower so most of them will be cleansed?" He stood up and led me to the bathroom despite my lack of an answer. "I'll be waiting."

* * *

Soon, after an agonising ordeal of patting my open sores dry, I walked outside of the steaming room, holding my bikini in a bunch, in a white towel. He stood up wearing a new set of heavy, black clothing and pointed to the laundry basket.

"Now, let's cover up these ouchies." _Ouchies... What a childish but incredibly cute way to say it!_

I was led back to the couch in just my towel and he placed me still in the middle of it and then crouched down in front of me to observe. After a few minutes my cuts on my face and legs were carefully cleaned and covered with bandages, but he started to remove my towel. I gasped and snatched it back, my face burning up.

"There were some on your stomach and back that I need to attend to." He calmly explained, not even realising what he was about to reveal.

"I can do them myself!" I pushed his hands off and refused to look back at him when I walked towards my wardrobe. I grabbed some clothes and slammed the bathroom door unintentionally loudly.

_Crap, I'm not angry at him, I was just in shock, I hope he doesn't feel bad; he was just trying to help._

"Hey, it's not too late to go shopping for some clothes." Zeref called out from the other side of the door. I opened it wearing some navy blue skinny jeans (which I never wore but I wanted to cover up my bruises) and a tight white shirt with a lime green cardigan.

"Do you have a scarf I can borrow?" I asked as I tried to raise the shirt's collar over the hand marks on my neck. He slowly nodded and aimed his head to the ground, avoiding looking at me. A long black scarf was handed to me and I quickly wrapped it around my neck and smiled gratefully at him, he then offered me his arm and announced.

"Let's be on our way."


	7. Chapter 7: Irony?

**Taking it a bit slower now, I don't want my chapters to seem like they've been rushed-written, *nervous laugh* Hope you like the extra details! Don't forget to review any opinions and ideas J**

**~I do not own Fairy Tail ~**

* * *

It was a dry day, where the blistering sun had no cloud to accompany him in the blue sky, and I couldn't regret wearing jeans, a long sleeved shrug and a scarf anymore than I do now, but I guess I had to cover up the many war wounds I received yesterday. However, I couldn't stop feeling somewhat spiteful of Zeref, who wore a dark grey T-shirt with an indigo woolen cardigan topped off with a thick, long trench coat tied loosely to his waist with a white obi.

Then, there were his loose black trousers which would just touched the floor if they didn't crumple when they reached his leather loafers. I'd assume he would be baking under all those layers but his face was cool and content.

Oh, how I envy him.

"Here," Zeref stopped and looked at an old and dark pub with a little chimney poking out of the black, badly painted roof. I flashed my eyes in his direction but he had already disappeared into the building.

_Dammit, Zeref, I thought we were going shopping!_

"Hey, wait for me!" I reluctantly ran after him and entered through the wooden door, which I eventually found out you had to pull the doorknob.

As soon as I walked, in I realized that the outside most definitely deceived this beautiful architecture as I stood in dismay near the entrance. Firstly, I noticed its extremely high ceiling which had beautiful icons of angels and holy beings; some were sculpted into the peak of the pillars, and a massive chandelier in the middle of it all. The light it provided highlighted the golden walls which contained framed paintings (some I've seen before but couldn't put a name on) and small italic writing near the corners which told different philosophical quotes. I was speechless.

"Lucy, care to join me for some refreshments before we delight ourselves in some clothes shopping?" His eye glinted at me as he sat around a wooden table near the unlit fireplace. Flabbergasted, I silently walked towards him, engulfing this new scenery which I've never seen before, and then pulled out a chair where a red pillow laid.

"Despite the amazing selection of brews they offer, I'm afraid you're too young to drink so I brought you a cranberry juice, is that alright?" He passed me a glass which contained a mouthwatering, deep red juice with a few ice cubes in it. He began delicately sipping the frothy beer he had in his half-pint glass, and sighed gracefully when he placed it down.

"Beautiful, isn't it?" He noticed that I hadn't said a word since I entered the place, to my surprise there weren't many customers in the place, just us and a few couples scattered around the massive area.

"Y-yes! I've never ever seen something like this, Zeref." I excitedly said after gulping down some of the refreshing berry juice. He smiled his beautiful and innocent smile; it enlightened me more than the coldest drink ever could.

"Sadly, it's usually like this everyday, just a damn shame that people avoid it from the outside. The bartender over there is a nice fellow, we get along, and he says that the only reason they cannot fix the outside is because they lack money. However, they also need to pay for new waiters, which they also lack due to the deceiving outside appearance." I quietly listened to him whilst guzzling the drink until it had disappeared.

"Would you like another?" He calmly asked and waited until I nodded shyly. "Mr. Dorindel, may we have another glass of the berry?" The bartender turned around to the sound of his name and smiled.

He was quite old and short, with a friendly grin and thin glasses covering his gentle, grey eyes. On his plump, wrinkly face, he had a white stubbly, beard and barely any hairs on his balding head. Soon, he waddled his way here, bringing another glassful of juice and took away my empty one.

"Before you go, did you say you wanted a part-time person around here to help around here?" The man suddenly turned jolly and agreed. "Well, my friend Lucy is new to town and she needs a job." My face whipped around to Zeref so fast that I felt my brain rattle in my head.

_When did I ever say that?! Then again, I guess I would need to find a job because I can't rely on Zeref offering me pity clothing..._

"Fantastic news, she can have a practice run on Wednesday at 5 o clock. Thank you very much Zeref." The man gleamed happily and bowed to my friend, who looked at the man's gesture slightly uncomfortably, but Mr. Dorindel quickly dashed back behind the counter before the moment could linger.

"You've got yourself a job here, I now have someone to share shifts with." Zeref proudly smiled to himself however I can't recall me saying anything about this arrangement.

* * *

Soon, we were back to wandering the steaming streets after a short and quick explanation of what I'd be doing in my future job. Surprisingly, it seemed pretty simple; all I had to do was wash dirty dishes, serve the drinks and food to the customers and clean the tables. Yes, it'd take a lot of hard work and effort but it's only for a little while, also Zeref would be there to help.

"Lucy, I think this place would be something to your liking." Zeref pointed at a bright pink and yellow shop, with big bubbly writing saying 'Little Princess'. My eye twitched at him, this was a children's clothing store.

"I'm not six!" I yelled at him and pulled his coat to lead him away from the colorful shop he was considering walking into. "Show me places where there are clothes and I'll decide, how about that?" I crossed my arms at him, still feeling offended from his offensive remark, but once again he looked confused on what he had said or done wrong.

A few moments passed as I strutted down the marketplace with Zeref closely following behind me.

"By now, I could guess that we've already passed every single shop in town, Lucy." He complained in a matter-of-fact way. Before I could stick my tongue out at him, I stood in front of a red and white themed boutique with retro clothes being modeled by some thin mannequins. I jumped up and down and skipped happily towards the black door with a tiny sign over it saying in cursive handwriting, 'Retrospective'. Loved it already!

"Zeref, oh thank you, thank you, thank you!" I squealed with absolute happiness as he bought me the cutest little golden sandals with a generous heel and a tight, blue tank top which exposed most of my waist and chest and it came with these flowing, long white sleeves. When we left the shop I couldn't help but feel like the happiest person on Earthland as I held the shopping bag which my new gifts were placed in, so I nuzzled Zeref's arm with my cheek and had a glazed look in my eye whilst he was secretly smiling to himself.

"It was my pleasure," He chuckled lightly, completely oblivious to why the new clothes made me so happy, which obvious answer would be: new clothes! "But it's getting dark so we'll have to walk back to the dorm now." And so we did.

* * *

"I don't know your last name, Zeref." I broke the silence with an honest statement: I really didn't know.

"It's Kurosawa," He forced out that word as if it was poison, "Though, can you please refrain from using that." He uncomfortably added.

"Mine's Heartfilia, and the same kind of goes with me too." The night sky was pitch black already and we hadn't even reached the dorms yet, I began holding onto Zeref's right arm for dear life. "Sure is getting dark..." My fear began leaping out before I knew it; I was terrified of the dark! Normally, it doesn't affect me when I'm with people but my heart was already pounding and my throat began clenching down a scream. "Please, can we hurry up?" I nudged his arm forward to which he reluctantly quickened his pace.

"What's wrong?" He sighed.

"I... I'm scared of the dark, ok?" I know, I know! At fifteen years old, I shouldn't be scared of the dark; I've even seen children half my age sleep with the light off. He began laughing heartily for a long while until he nearly collapsed to the ground. I was shocked by his insensitivity.

"You-you can't be scared of the dark, Lucy, that's impossible!" His laughter began to calm down and he managed a few words. "Sorry, but that is quite ironic, isn't it?" He seemed to be asking himself that.

"It's NOT funny and it's not ironic!" I yelled at him whilst letting go of his arm, almost throwing an angry tantrum but I could soon feel my voice breaking and tears began blurring my eyesight.

"If only you knew, Lucy, if only you knew..." He chuckled one last time and began walking forwards again accompanied with his regular, stoic face. I quickly ran to his side again and began quivering and collecting goose bumps all over my body, trying so hard to hold in my frightened whine. Suddenly, I felt his arm move and he gently placed it around my shoulders and dug me closer to his warm, comforting body, then nudged my head a little with his chin.

"Hey now, if you're really that scared then I'm sorry." His low, melodic voice sung through my shaking body but I kept looking into the opaque area in front of us, causing me to swing my arms around his body and place my head into his chest, hiding away from the darkness.

This continued until we finally ended up at the gates, this time before curfew, where lanterns and lamps clearly lit up the building and I soon felt my panic slowly ooze out of me. Now, the only thing that raced through my mind was not considered the most exciting event in life, but I couldn't feel anymore content about it finally arriving:

_New school tomorrow!_


	8. Chapter 8: The First Day!

**I'm so sorry for late update, I've been lazy (it's been about a week!) but I just had a massive writer's block, it's fine now so hope you enjoy and forgive ^.^**

**Don't forget to review any ideas or improvements, or general stuff, I don't mind :p**

**~I do not own Fairy Tail~**

* * *

"Lucy, wake up, I'm afraid we're running a bit late." My eyes opened to the sound of Zeref's voice, who was busying himself by cooking in the kitchen.

At the bottom of my bed I noticed there were neatly folded and ordered piles of clothing, all of them looking like they were newly bought. Zeref walked in whilst wiping his hands with a handkerchief.

"I completely forgot about your uniform and sports kit so this morning I bought these from the school shop down the road. I didn't know what styles you preferred so I chose a variety." He was wearing a white school shirt with a dark red tie loosely hanging around his neck, then a woolly, dark green jumper with a white Fairy Tail logo on the right chest. The trousers he wore were wrinkle-free loose, cream chinos and his feet were obviously in his typical black loafers.

_I guess the uniform wasn't _that_ bad._

However, I was shocked with the amount of clothing he had purchased for me. There were a big pile of white school blouses, two cream, pleated skirts, and four pairs of knee height white socks, 3 pairs of both nude and black tights. Next to them was cream polo shirts with a black Fairy Tail logo and two pairs of dark green skorts, on top of them were black, nylon socks.

"Zeref, you shouldn't have..." I was astounded by his generosity, I couldn't imagine how much this would have cost him, plus he's already bought me so many things.

"Nonsense, I couldn't even find a jumper your size! I have ordered some though, but they will arrive in a few days, until then you can borrow one of mine." He placed two plates on the glass table in front of the sofa and then walked over to his wardrobe and retrieved a green jumper.

As soon as he passed it to me, I locked myself in the bathroom and experimented with some of the uniform. I ended up choosing the clear tights, tucking the blouse into my high-waist cream skirt, which fitted me perfectly, until I unfolded Zeref's jumper.

_This is twice the size of me, I can't fit into it!_

Waddling my way out the bathroom like a overweight penguin, I managed to fold the long sleeves up to my elbows but the bottom of the jumped his my skirt beneath it, looking as if I was wearing nothing underneath. I raised my eyebrows at Zeref, who had nodded approvingly at my attire.

"You look good." Then he continued to eat his egg on toast whilst gesturing me to join him for breakfast. "Eat. We've got to go soon. I made sunny side up eggs on toast with half a grapefruit and some orange juice to the side." Happily, I sat on the plush sofa pillow and greedily munched into my delicious breakfast.

After we finished, he took my plates and painfully forced himself to leave the dirty dishes in the sink, convincing himself that he had no time to wash them. Whilst he was contradicting his own mind to rebel against his OCD, I frantically brushed my teeth, combed my hair and then wrapped the scarf I wore yesterday around my neck.

Even though the other bruises and scratches were clearing away astonishingly fast, the finger marks around my neck still tainted my fair skin.

I shoved on my old leather school shoes and soon was accompanied by Zeref, whose jet black eyes waited for me to signal my readiness, which caused an odd joy to flutter through my heart. The only two things which annoyed me on the way was the massive jumper overtaking my skirt and that I was late for the first day of school.

* * *

"How did you know my size?" I wondered as we were walking swiftly towards our classroom in the never ending corridors, I had to follow Zeref around until I get my own timetable, but since the clothes fit me perfectly I was just curious. He looked at me blankly and did not answer.

"Well, 'cause all the clothes were my exact size and I just want to know." I stuttered awkwardly.

"Oh right, I measured you." He simply answered and looked forward. Taken aback by this blunt reply, I gulped down saliva and widened my eyes.

"You did... what?" I forced those words out of my tightened lips, speculating if I even wanted an explanation anymore.

"In the morning I realised I needed a proper size to buy your uniform, so I measured you." I froze to the spot.

_Please don't tell me that he..._

"What?! Whilst I was sleeping? That's so creepy and weird, Zeref! You just don't do that to people, especially girls! This is beyond..." My face was burning with so much embarrassment and anger, I didn't know what else to do but slap him hard across his confused face. I didn't want to but that was a direct invasion of my personal space. He groaned and held his bright red cheek; his eyes were as innocent and misunderstanding as a puppy dog being scolded at.

"You don't even realise what you've done wrong." I sighed at his puzzled reaction. "Forget it." I rolled my eyes and purposely walked ahead of him, despite the fact I had no idea which classroom we were in.

"Room 42: double philosophy." (If you get that reference then whoop!) Zeref called out to me. Coincidentally, I was already in front of that class number and impatiently waited for him to catch up. His solemn eyes almost placed guilt into my heart but I snapped my head away from them and opened the door.

Suddenly, something hard hit my stomach and cracked against my skin, drenching my jumper with the terrible-smelling gooey liquid inside of it. It was a rotten egg and it had exploded all over my new clothes! The force pushed me back into Zeref, who had held out his arms to support me; I could feel his body tensing with fury.

All I wanted was a perfect start to my beginning, without the numerous calamitous disasters, and now I smelt of rotten eggs, my stomach stung from the impact, and my mind was angry at Zeref. Everything was so overwhelming I just began crying in front of the whole class and tried to run away.

Zeref abruptly stopped me, he looked intensely at me and I witnessed his eyes transform into their angry, glowing red, which were then aimed at Natsu; the perpetrator of the prank.

"That was meant for Gray, I'm so sorry Lucy!" Natsu quickly apologised and cowered under the evil glare of Zeref, who began sternly approaching the pink-haired boy, easily towering over him.

When the light in the room began to fade, I sniffed my sadness up and quickly turned around and gasped with the rest of the students, the same all-to-familiar, black as night shadows were awakening around Zeref's body and began gathering at his bunched fists.

"You made Lucy cry, just like your other friends in Ultima-"

"Shut up! You don't know anything!" Natsu disrupted Zeref before he could finish his sentence.

"Kick his ass, Natsu." A deep voice boomed from the back of the class. It was Gajeel, who stood up and crossed his arms with a crunched up face.

"Yeah, I know you could beat him!" A girl with big blue eyes and short lilac hair confidently shouted at him, standing up along with Gajeel. She instantly annoyed me. Natsu fists began gathering a flame around it, slightly lighting the class with an orange tint.

"Zeref, don't do this." Finally, I heard a rational voice and it was Loke, he looked very serious but was backing off from the gathering shadow in the room, his eye caught mine and he tried to warn me of them.

Both boys had ignored their comrades and were glaring at each other with piercing eyes, the growing tension becoming so painful I wanted to cut it with a knife myself!

Zeref whispered something inaudible to Natsu, which caused him to gather up a gigantic flame on his right fist and punch Zeref. It was useless. Before the flame could even breach his skin, it disappeared like a candle being blown out within a few centimetres of Zeref.

"Your petty flames don't affect me, flicker man; my shadow can alter their state with ease." Zeref smirked sadistically, gathering a massive wisp of shadow around his hand and punched Natsu in the stomach. The force made him break through the glass in the windows and the class reacted with just 'whoa!'

They all ran to the window to see the fallen body and the sighs of relief suggests that he was okay, thankfully! But Zeref just turned around towards me, his eyes still glimmering dark red with a menacing grin planted across his face. I shook my head disapprovingly, my whole body still in shock of the punch, and backed away from him when he tried to walk towards me.

"Why did you do that?" I screamed at him. Once again, he shook his head quickly and his eyes returned back to their normal colour and the shadow leaked back towards his body, giving light to the room.

"Lucy, please understand I was not myself." Zeref tried stepping forwards again but stopped as soon as my lips began shaking and I was holding back tears, he looked down to the floor melancholically. "I'm sorry."

"Don't apologise to _me_." I refused to look at him, to give him any more of my pity and just make him remorse his previous actions.

"Sorry I'm late, class, I was in a meeting with the headmaster." A high pitched voice called from behind me, the voice was owned to a knee-height blue cat with detachable white wings on his back.

"Oh no, what happened?" He stopped and cleverly observed the room, then looked down outside the window.

"Natsu, Zeref meet me in isolation now." The cat hissed and angrily flew outside the classroom through the door, holding Zeref's ear with his little paws, refusing to allow him to collect his school bag.

* * *

Throughout the whole of the first two periods, we lacked a teacher and sanity in the classroom however I just sat on one of the tables in the corner and sulked by myself. I took off Zeref's contaminated jumper and put it in a shopping bag I carried around with me and thankfully the odour had only lingered with the jumper. Occasionally, Loke or Levy would come up to me and try to comfort me or engage in casual conversation but I brushed them off.

Even though I was furious with Zeref, I still eagerly waited for his lean, dark silhouette to appear at the door, plastered on a remorseful face. In all honesty, despite feeling utmost anger towards his prior actions, I missed his company and felt like an outcast in the class. That is why I was so relieved to finally hear the satisfying bell for break time ring. Everyone gathered their bags and quickly walked out of the class, leaving me alone by myself.

I couldn't help this melancholic, heartbreaking feeling bury itself deep into my stomach.

_It wasn't supposed to be like this. I was supposed to be happy and refreshed with a new life and friends. All I did was reject the people who tried to be nice to me. Goddamit, why was I so stupid? _

"So you're friends with the shadow walker huh?" The sudden voice behind me made me shriek from complete shock. I turned around and discovered Gajeel, the massive boy with metal piercings on his ears, eyebrow and nose, with his long, spiky black hair slicked back away from his head, what a total rebel. What I hadn't noticed before was his eyes; they were dark red with slit pupils, almost like a snake's eye. How creepy.

"Yes." I nodded and stepped away from him, who was slowly approaching me with a menacing look in his eyes.

"Well, I can see why he's taken a liking to you, geehee." He put his head right through my personal bubble and he was only a few millimetres from me then began leering at my body. I didn't do anything but back away from this boy, who then followed me until I hit the wall.

"I don't know you, please leave me alone." I said meekly, trying to walk away from his presence, but he stopped me by putting his arm against the wall.

"Come on, I'm just being friendly." He scowled and tried to place his hands on my head but I screamed and pushed him off, when suddenly I saw my saviour, my tall black knight who sometimes pissed me off but I couldn't stay mad at him when he comes in at times like these!

"Do you want to end up like Natsu, moron?" Zeref threatened with a bitter expression on his face, whilst gathering darkness around him. This was the first time I've seen him do this without taking away the light in the room or becoming evil-eyed, maybe this was how it looked when he could control it?

"Whatever." Gajeel shrugged away from me, gathered his tattered backpack and swaggered out of the room.

Zeref collected his bag, which he dropped near the teacher's desk before he punched Natsu, and looked back to me as if he was expecting me to explain something.

"What?" I snapped at him, picking up the strap for my travelling/school bag.

"Nothing, just... don't make a habit of being near him." Zeref demanded and, for once, I'll take his advice on that.

"Thanks, Zeref, for everything you've done." I sighed away my anger with one huge exhale and smiled happily at my friend.

"Anything for my little buddy." Zeref beamed his perfect smile, lighting up my heart with a spark like a firework, and calmly walked towards the door. "Let's go and spend break outside of this classroom, it's a beautiful day."


	9. Chapter 9: Revenge

**Answering some of the reviews:**

**-No Zeref isn't bipolar but that comment strangely made me laugh xD (it's his magic which controls him)**

**-Lucy's power will be determined in the later chapters**

**-ANNOUNCEMENT: I will only be updating once a week, I need to concentrate on my exams which are coming up, but I'll write the chapters 2,000 words plus **

**-Hope you enjoy and don't forget to review your ideas or improvements xox**

* * *

Unlike the last two days, the weather was warm but refreshing. The sun blazed blistering heat down to us with the perfect accompaniment of a cool, gentle breeze. I couldn't feel more tranquil than I did now, laying on the stout, fluffy grass in the school field, which was hidden behind the Academy.

I absorbed as much heat as I could by tying up my polo shirt so it exposed my stomach and then pitching up the hem of my skirt. Since hardly anyone else was in the area Zeref and I chose to relax, I took off the scarf which shielded my bruises from unwanted eyes and laid down next to my calm friend.

Zeref had taken off his coat and jumper and rolled up his sleeves, exposing his bulging biceps which I couldn't help but admire.

"Isn't this just perfect?" I sighed contently and looked up to him laying a feet away from me on a pitch black blanket.

"There is space on here if you'd like to share." He offered. I blushed at the thought of being so close to him and crawled on all four towards him as he nudged himself to the edge of the blanket.

"Lucy, I'm glad I finally found you!" The moment was instantaneously ruined when Levy approached us along with Cana, Evergreen, Gray, Gajeel, Loke and some girls I didn't recognise. They were both beautiful girls, one who was tall, curvy with big brown eyes and long, scarlet hair and the other with dark blue hair which was curled at the end with matching eyes. Everyone in this school was so beautiful and picturesque, I'm absolutely astounded by them all.

"Oh, I didn't know you were busy." Levy put her small hands over her mouth to hide her smug smile, whilst everyone else was laughing, except for Gajeel and Loke, who both looked towards me very sternly.

_Oh no! I was leaning towards Zeref with my clothes exposing half my body as well as his... This must've looked so bad!_

I began blushing uncontrollably and stood up quickly, trying to ignore my growing embarrassment.

"Hi Levy!" I smiled enthusiastically whilst awkwardly rubbing the back of my head. Suddenly, everyone but Loke and Gajeel looked shocked at me, as if they've seen something horrendous.

"Are you okay?" Levy looked concerned, her eyes looking back and forth between my neck and Zeref, who was sitting upright behind me with a sorrowful expression on his face. Realising that they were reacting to my bruises, I pulled my long, blond hair around it and widened my eyes in horror.

"Yeah, I'm fine. Sorry about class, I was just a bit grumpy." I stuttered and exaggeratedly grinned and walked up to her. She glanced suspiciously at Zeref again, then passed me the orange T-shirt I left on the beach on Saturday.

"It's fine, don't worry. Here you left this and didn't come back so I took it. Oh, and this is Erza and Juvia." Levy announced the red head and the bluenette. I waved at them and they responded likewise. "Do you want to hang out with us in lunchtime? We're located by that big maple tree." She pointed to an ancient maple tree on the other side of the massive field.

"Definitely!" My eyes brightened up.

"See you, beauty." Loke winked at me before they all walked away and began loudly chatting with each other. I noticed Gajeel look back and smirk.

_What the hell was his problem with me?_

Zeref ended up at my side, his black trench coat rested on his body again and he stoically looked down at at me.

"I've made new friends, why are you sad-looking, huh?" I faced him and excitably jumped up and down, balancing myself on his cloaked arms, trying to spread my joy to him.

"They think I'm the one who bruised you, Lucy, they don't like me." He despairingly announced, causing my excitable mood to dampen, but I wasn't willing to let it go.

"Well, I'll make it absolutely clear that you didn't and that you're the nicest person I know and my best, best friend." I put on my cutesy voice, grabbed his hands and swung them side to side playfully. Pretending to dance, I was laughing and skipping about, still keeping my grip on his huge hands.

"Did I see a smile?" I beamed towards him as I saw his face defeat to happiness and he began lightly chuckling and swaying his arms with me. Out of nowhere, his body stopped moving and his face turned emotionless again.

"The bell is about to ring, we should go. We have a mathematics test next." Then he sternly walked away from me, reaching for his bag along the way, to which the bell rang right on time.

"Wait! Before you go, what should I do with this?" I picked up the tightly wrapped up bag which contained the nauseating jumper.

"Throw it away, I guess, it was getting too small anyway." He turned around and observed me throw it into a bin attached to the school building.

_How was that small on him, it could've easily passed as a dress on me!_

As soon as I dropped the bag in the green container, he retreated back towards the school doors again without waiting for me, so I frantically wrapped the scarf around me and grabbed my school bag.

I looked back at the lonely spot in the field's corner where our lying bodies left an indentation on the silky grass to check if we had forgotten something. We hadn't, so I continued striding towards Zeref, who was impatiently waiting for me to be by his side again.

* * *

"Sir, I'm new here, do I have to take this test?" Desperately, I tried to mangle my way out of the maths test but the teacher, who was very tall and muscular with slicked back blue hair and a moustache, rejected my every attempt.

"It'd be nice to see your capability with a top-set maths exam, now go on and find your seat." He insisted. Instead of arguing with him anymore, I admitted defeat and walked to the chair next to Zeref, where everyone in the class stared at me quarrelling with the man. I could make out Levy and Erza in the classroom, but that was it.

Most people would assume I was terrible at maths, due to my physical appearance, but in my old school (when I actually went to school) I was the child prodigy excelling in the general subjects: science, PE, English and of course, maths.

"Starts... Now." The teacher, informally called Macao by the students, looked at his watch and sliced his hand through the air declaring the beginning of our test.

After forty minutes, I had confidently finished all the questions, with twenty minutes left to check my answers, which I already knew were correct. It was boring and stretched but that fifth of an hour passed and the bell rang, much to the frustration of some students who hadn't finished, and I was the first to get up and pass the papers to Macao, followed by Zeref.

"How'd you do?" I asked keenly, moving to his side.

"Not too badly. I could see you found it quite simple." He opened the door for me and I gratefully smiled at him.

"Yeah, it was pretty easy. Ooh, what subject do we have next?" Since that was a pretty boring lesson for me, I was eager to discover what our next one would be.

"I have a free period, you can join me if you like."

_Of course I'm going to join you, silly, where else would I go?_

* * *

Our footsteps echoed across the empty, everlasting corridors, leaving an eerie silence throughout the school as other students were being educated. This continued for ten minutes until we reached a large opening in the middle of the school, lighted up by the sun's rays.

It had longer grass, compared to the field outside, with a darker, richer shade of green accompanied by the closest object to us, a lonely willow tree which covered most of a wooden bench. Unquestionably, it was beautiful but abandoned like the pub, The Blue Butterfly, Zeref had shown me yesterday; both lacked attention and care.

When I tried to walk into it, he had ferociously grabbed me and brought me to his side again, painfully pinching my skin with his hands.

"Someone's here." He dauntingly whispered to me, leaving goosebumps all over my body. Wondering where they could be hiding, I looked around the willow tree and saw a cleverly hidden figure waiting behind the leaves.

_What if it was those men again? _

Whoever it was, they began to walk into sight and there he was, Natsu, confidently and aggressively standing a few meters from us.

"Afraid of me, Zeref?" He scoffed smugly.

"What are you doing here?" Zeref angrily demanded whilst pushing me behind him, approaching the cocky boy with the same stern walk he had before. I clenched my jaw in suspense of what could happen between the two unpredictable but incredibly strong wizards.

"I want to continue fight from before, and this time I'm going to win." Natsu snarled and shrouded his arms in a smouldering flame, igniting a blazing inferno.

_Don't do it, Zeref, have some common sense for once, please!_


	10. Chapter 10: Too Late

**New chapter, yay! Don't forget to review any ideas, improvements etc. Hope you enjoy reading this as much as I enjoyed writing it! **

**~I do not own Fairy Tail~**

* * *

Here I was, hiding near the entrance to the majestic garden in the centre of the school, afraid of what would happen between the two angry mages who stood a few metres away from the door, with Zeref's back facing me. Firstly, Natsu wanted a 'rematch battle' with him in order to gain back some of his stupid pride and Zeref was sadly counteracting.

"Zeref, please don't do this." I begged desperately, trying to stop him as he approached the pink-haired boy, whose fists were shrouded in massive flames. Something seemed different about these specific ones, they were different coloured compared to his prior ones, they were more yellow than red. Zeref bunched his hands into a tight fist, clouding them in a black mist, completely ignoring my plea.

But it was too late. Natsu charged at the aggravated shadow like a bull marked on a red flag and punched Zeref, who flew back into the walls near me with immense force from the contact. The stone wall rumbled under his body and shook the whole school building. I leapt down to the ground and hid behind the wall to avoid being hit by broken-off cement flying in all directions.

"You bastard." Zeref growled menacingly, then jumped back to the ground and shrugged the crushed rocks off his shoulders. He swung off his coat and threw it to the side; Natsu did the same but with his school jumper.

The brunette grunted vexatious sounds, violently shook his head for a second before gathering a massive shadow and stomped on the ground towards Natsu so furiously that I could feel the school's foundations tremor. Then he retaliated and tried to punch him, who dodged it and hit Zeref again, who was too slow and surprised to block the blow.

Zeref limply fell to the floor to the floor with his face planted on the bed of grass, but soon found his feet then faced Natsu with an astounded look on his dirtied face.

"My regular flame may not hit you but I have another which can beat you easily." Natsu answered the surprised expression on Zeref with a proud grin. They were now facing sideways to me, Zeref on the left and Natsu on the right, both determined to win the fight.

"Impossible..." There was something I saw on Zeref's face which I couldn't even imagine he could feel, in all consideration towards his immeasurable power: he's struggling with a fight.

Suddenly, he constricted the temples of his head with his hands and screamed deafeningly, then collapsed to his knees neglecting the fight. When he looked up, his face expressed complete agony and he began shrieking.

"No, no, stop!"

_Zeref is in pain, I need to help him!_

Instinctively, I pounced out from my hiding and ran over to him but I saw Natsu evilly take a cheap shot and attack Zeref so I regretfully backed away again, unwilling to be in the area when they were fighting; it was a danger risk. Even though he was on the ground with scratches and torn clothing, he took the hit without any refusal and landed a few feet away from me, still clenching his teeth and head.

From afar, I looked into onyx eyes trying to discover a hint of surrender or weakness in them to decide that it was the end of this ordeal; but there was not even a fleck of such emotion in him. He definitely had fighting spirit kicking in him, but I realise he might not just be fighting with Natsu, it seemed like his eyes were escaping to a completely different world than ours.

"Natsu, don't!" I yelled as I saw him charging for another flame-packed punch, but it was too late.

As soon as Natsu made contact to his exposed stomach, Zeref grabbed Natsu by the wrist and violently twisted it, making Natsu shriek in pain, then gathered a large black cloud in his other hand and jabbed him in the stomach. The force made the pinkette blast through the wall across the yard, crumbling the wall behind him.

Panting exhaustedly, Zeref managed to collect himself and stood straight up, waiting for his fallen enemy to rise again, with a cloud like the night sky: specks of gold and silver glittering proudly and a deep, infinite opaqueness gathered behind it. The space between his feet and the ground began spreading, as a similar black cloud levitated him off the ground and moved smoothly to the wreckage.

Natsu jumped from the fallen wall and punched Zeref and they began fighting each other so quickly I couldn't see their arms and squabbling insults back at each other. This continued until a bellowing, echoing voice shouted at them, along with the whole school who had followed the ruckus and trembles.

"What do you blundering idiots think you're doing?" A giant, very pissed off Makarov entered the arena and separated the two of them with his bare hands, "My office, now." Whether or not they were going to go with him, he entrapped them in his giant hands (which looked very humorous because Makarov had returned to his normal, tiny size but kept his hands the same size in order to hold them) whilst the rest of the students looked at me for a full explanation.

Without any warning, I felt arms around me and hugging me tight. At first, I hoped it'd be Zeref, and I don't know why that was so my heart fluttered at the thought but I looked up to see Loke with teary eyes.

"Thank God, my little Lucy didn't get hurt!" He happily cried out and hugged me tighter.

"Loke, you're squashing me." I muffled under his t-shirt, which had a permanent vapour of men's perfume tainted onto it, almost making me choke from its overwhelming odour. He quickly released me and apologised, smiling all-too-sweetly at me. Everyone began crowding around me, asking a dozen of questions per second about what happened. Eventually, I couldn't take the claustrophobia anymore and ran out of a gap I could find and continued sprinting down the corridor, despite my hurting chest, throbbing veins and lack of stamina, until I found the headmaster's office. The sound of a bell made the students who had followed me return to their daily lives of school.

I slowed to a silent walk to avoid anyone realising someone was outside eavesdropping, crouched down near the door and softly rested my ear against the thin, wooden door, concentrating on any voices from within. I heard Makarov's first, and he wasn't happy.

* * *

**Zeref's P.O.V**- these won't happen often

_Ignorant, reckless boy, albeit strong, his stupidity made up most of his personality. If I hadn't fought against the evils dwelling within me then he would've been dead by now, then again, so would Lucy and maybe half the school; it was a good decision to control it. Despite that, I couldn't help but want to smack that smug expression on his face, I'm afraid that would just get me in more trouble than I already am. I should just listen to what the aging man has to say._

"Natsu and Zeref, this was your second encounter like this today, wasn't it? I'm afraid that I couldn't just let you guys off with a warning-"

"What, like you do all the time with emo-boy here?" Natsu rudely interrupted, which deserved the icy glares from the Master. I couldn't help but agree with the idiot, Makarov does have a tendency to let me off easily whenever I commit my shenanigans, but he knows my situation, he knows I cannot control what I do when I release my full power. Which I have not done yet, all of the previous unfortunate events occurred under a maximum of half my magic, I am actually quite proud of how I denied my evils any rights to take over, even though it physically hurt me to do so. It doesn't like it when I refuse.

"Your regular punishments seem to have no effect on either of you, so I'm going to give you one which will haunt you for the rest of your teenage lives." Makarov evilly announced to himself, maniacally laughing to himself of his sneaky plan. "You're going to help fundraising for the Fluffy Animals Society, and by that you'll need these to walk around the classrooms as official representatives." He walked over to one of the many back cupboards behind him and pulled out two... oh god.

The only thing heard from that office was the resistant cries and begs for mercy from the poor fire-mage and shadow walker.

* * *

**Back to Lucy's P.O.V**

_Why were they screaming, what did Makarov bring out_? I tried to force my eyesight to clear through the small opening in the keyhole but I could only see the deep, black hair from Zeref and the bright pink from Natsu. _Dammit, I want to know!_

I heard Natsu begging desperately, 'Please don't make us wear that!' and then Zeref trying to smoothly reason with him by proposing a halfway agreement of doing the fundraising for the charity without the need of the costumes, but Makarov insisted. They gave up, took whatever clothing Makarov provided them and walked towards the door. I rushed to a corner not far from the office and hid behind it, ever so often peeking out from it.

"Where do we change?" Zeref sighed, asking Makarov whilst standing outside of it, holding something I couldn't see because he had his back to me.

"Out here is fine, good day." Makarov shut the door behind them, echoing one last cackle in the corridors, and left Natsu and Zeref in each other's company. _Turn around!_

However, they looked back so I hid for a minute until I heard some rummaging. When I looked back, Zeref and Natsu were both topless, parading their perfectly muscular bodies, and taking off their trousers. My cheeks were tainted red with embarrassment and my heart skipped a beat at the unexpected sight, so I quickly turned my head away and breathed out slowly, trying to slow my racing heart.

I turned back to witness the most hysterically perfect, cute (in a sort of weird, creepy way) scene in the world! But I had to abruptly cover my mouth to avoid bursting out in complete laughter, hurting my stomach to restrict anything more than a giggle from my mouth.

Right in front of me was two very, VERY unhappy teenage boys dressing up as a rabbit (Zeref) and a kitten (Natsu). Zeref had white, bunny ears, one which flopped lazily to the side, tiny, black whiskers with a pink upside-down triangle on the tip of his nose and a petite carrot purse. His short dress consisted of white pompoms with a noticeably bigger pompom near his bum, acting like a tail, with knee-high socks and white ballet shoes.

On the other hand, Natsu had little kitten ears with black whiskers and nose, brown freckles on his cheek and a nyancat purse. His fully black dress was a bit kinkier, short and tight all the way throughout, with a long, black cat tail at his bottom and black netted stockings with black shoes. They both hung their heads in shame, their pride and dignity permanently leaving their bodies, and I couldn't help but think they both looked absolutely adorable! (Maybe not Natsu that much, considering he looks like a sex kitten)

"Awww, don't you guys just look soooooo cute!" I couldn't stop myself skipping over to them using my cutesy voice and hugging both of their depressing bodies.

"Lucy?"

"Lucy, don't look at me like this." Natsu and Zeref both reluctantly hugged me back, blushing with utter embarrassment and anguish that everyone in school will see them like this.

"I'm coming with you, I must see this!" I demanded happily, already anticipating the range of reactions they'll receive throughout the day.

"Please don't."

"Yeah! The more, the better!" Natsu exclaimed and thumbs me up, grinning widely. Zeref melodramatically sighed, avoiding any eye contact with me and just looking sadly to the wall.

"Oh, don't forget these!" Makarov opened the door and threw two donation buckets at Zeref and Natsu, both hitting them straight on their heads (which I think Makarov aimed for) and made them fall on their faces, drowning in their sudden tears.

"I don't want to do this!" Natsu and Zeref cried exaggeratedly.


	11. Chapter 11: Deathmist

**New chapter, yay! Don't forget to review any ideas, improvements etc. Hope you enjoy reading this.**

**Also, I've set out a poll for which characters you'd like to see more often in the chapters, please vote vote vote!**

**~I do not own Fairy Tail~**

* * *

The gloomy atmosphere in the corridors was accompanied by the two rainclouds hanging over their hung heads as they slowly pigeon-walked forwards with me in between them. Their ballet shoes echoed throughout the empty hallway, the kitten heels adding more height to their already-towering height and I felt their heart crushing every time their shoes click-clacked against the floor. I joyfully skipped forwards and then stop every so often to turn back at them and shout, "Hurry up!" They moaned loudly and quickened their pace despite their anguished faces.

"Why do you think Makarov had these costumes in his back cupboard?" Natsu thought to himself out loud. Immediately, I regret ever considering the reasons behind those outfits.

"Honestly, I don't care why. I'm only concentrating on keeping hold of whatever pride I have left." Zeref tried to hold a high head but deserted the idea and slouched his head downwards.

"At least it wasn't a back-breaking punishment." I pushed myself between him and Natsu and smiled up at them then at the empty donation boxes in their hands, anticipating how heavy they'll be after they've been filled with generous coins and loose change. I noticed a piece of paper badly tied to Zeref's bucket and grabbed it curiously, then quietly read to myself what it had written on it.

Coincidentally, the room they had to visit was the class of people in our year, which I smugly pointed out. They both stopped walking and sank to the floor, sulking with a growing grey cloud above their heads, and almost tore their tight-fitting dresses.

Of course, I felt like they deserved it. From what I've heard, today wasn't the first time they've fought so recklessly, so it was about time for them to be punished in such a way that they wouldn't dare go outside in the next ten years or so.

"Come on, we have to do just this one class before lunch," I enthusiastically grabbed their muscular arms and pulled the two dismal teenagers up from the rank-suitable floor, "Plus, I don't know where this classroom is." I quietly added.

"Well then, let's go," Natsu confidently jumped up and punched the air with determination but I knew he secretly wanted this ordeal for him to be over as soon as possible. "After all, it's for charity, isn't it?" Natsu sourly emphasised the last sentence at Zeref, who reluctantly got up.

* * *

I sat down in-between Loke and Levy and waited for their speech to begin with an approving look from the very tall and scarily hench teacher called Mr. Strauss, quoting that, "Only real men will complete a punishment, no matter how embarrassing or degrading." This comment led Natsu and Zeref looking down, taking in all of the shouts and woops from the male audience.

However, I could see the girls around me blushing and pointing out the bulging muscles contained within the tight dresses of Natsu and Zeref, most of the comments aimed at Zeref, who apparently only wear clothes which covers most of his whole body and was a rare sight to find out of them. For some reason, I felt instantaneously annoyed at the girls' and grumpily sunk into my seat, trying to block out their irritating voices.

"Hey, Mittens, speak up!" Gray Fullbuster shouted from the back of the class at Natsu, who began speaking after the long ten minutes of straight-out laughter from the whole room stopped, which caused Natsu to angrily lash out.

"What did you say to me, Ice-Freak?" He raised his fists at the smirking boy, but Zeref calmly held him back and, much to the surprise of the whole class, Natsu relaxed his body and exhaled.

"We're here to support a charity desperately in need of money so they can provide aid necessary to help poor, helpless animals who lack simple necessities for a graceful life. Put yourself in their positions and donate whatever you deem necessary for you to leave behind a life of poverty and malnutrition." Zeref heroically stepped forward, where a sudden light appeared from out of nowhere, and dramatically preached to the student body where I could see his little 'fanclub' wiping a tear from their eyes. I rolled my eyes and sighed at them, then caught eyes with Zeref, who softly smiled at me. Despite his ultimate prepubescent womanliness in his white pompom dress, I grinned proudly when I noticed he was always looking at me throughout his speech.

The whole population of girls began frantically walking up to the two boys and generously emptying their pockets into the red buckets then tried chatting with them, leaving Loke and I by ourselves near the back. Whereas, Natsu would naively reply to the obviously-flirting girls and Zeref ignored them or answered very bluntly, which I happily smiled to myself about.

"Quite inspiring, wasn't it?" Loke looked over at me with his deep, hazel eyes and tipped his head cutely; I nodded at him and giggled at the two boys' costumes once more, "Oh, Lucy, your laugh is absolute harmony to my ears!" He gently took my hand and kissed it lightly.

I was completely shocked by this gesture and my face flushed bright pink, however I didn't snatch my hand back because I was lost in his dreamy eyes, which I've only just noticed were surrounded by pure, slightly tanned skin and small, pouting lips. From the corner of my eye I could see Zeref struggling to push himself through the crowd of donators towards me, but before I could turn to face him, Loke suddenly wrapped his arms around me and hugged me, frightening me to death.

"Lucy, you don't know my true feelings, do you?" He gasped melodramatically.

"Feelings? We've just met!" I exclaimed and tried to look at his face to see (or hope) if he was joking. He wasn't, in fact, he tried to kiss me. I closed my eyes and leaned away from him when I suddenly felt his hands abruptly abandon their grip on my shoulders; opened my eyes and looked up. Zeref was furiously holding Loke by his shoulder with glowering, red orbs staring right at him and a crinkled face. Despite the immense force Zeref held the teenager he was expressing a proud smirk on his face.

"Hit a nerve, did I?" Loke smugly asked Zeref, who soon caught on with whatever he had planned and let go of his shoulder, ferociously shoving him away from us.

Dazed and still frozen from what had just happened, I looked at Zeref for answers but I couldn't help staring at the little floppy ears he had on his head. His face plastered on his regular stoic emotion and stepped towards me, entrapping me into the corner, feeling terrible déjà vu, and spoke lowly.

"Stay away from him, Lucy." He growled.

"Right, should I be writing that down along with the many others you've told me to avoid?" I snapped and angrily shoved passed him, walking away without looking back and headed towards Levy, who was suspiciously viewing the whole scene from afar.

"You okay, Luce?" She blinked her massive hazel eyes and held my hand to comfort me. I smiled, shaking my head and rolled my eyes, avoiding any answer at the moment. "Well, this lesson's nearly over and lunch is next, you still joining us?" She beamed up at me.

"Of course, I could take a break from Mr. Grumpy." I said with utmost relief.

* * *

At first, I thought I could learn more about Levy in lunch because we were the first people to arrive at the aging maple tree however the person of subject turned out to be me, most specifically, Zeref and I.

"How'd you get those bruises?" I had a feeling she already thought she knew the answer as we sat down on the grass, but I wanted to express to her that Zeref isn't a bad guy.

_Leaving out what he did to those men, are we? _I asked myself

"On the first night I was here, you know -when I was at the beach- I strayed and some guys got rough -they're the ones who gave me this- but thankfully Zeref saved me." That answer seems to of disappointed her in a sort of way.

"Sounds scary, what happened?"

"I just told you." I quickly replied.

"I mean, like, when Zeref saw the men." She refused to say anything heroic about him and I don't know why.

"He roughed up the dudes, saved me heroically and then happily ever after we fell asleep." I lied, it didn't feel good but the truth sounded worse than how it actually was.

"Oh! Who are you roomies with? I haven't seen you around the dorms." Levy waved at Loke and the others, who were walking up to us a while away.

"Zeref, they didn't have other rooms, apparently."

"WHAT? You're sharing a room with HIM? You must get Makarov to change it or something." She slammed her chopsticks, which still had sticky rice attached to the ends, on the ground.

"What's your problem with him? You don't seem to like him." I frowned for the first time in her company.

"He's evil. Weird and freaky, you should stay away from him, Luce." Levy sourly spat out his description.

_Okay, yes, he is weird and freakish because he DID measure my body whilst I was sleeping. I guess he's also killed a lot of people because of that weird black mist. Come to think of it, I saw it surrounding him during his second encounter with Natsu, before he screamed and then it vanished. He's not evil. I know him and he is the total opposite of that!_

"I must disagree with you; Zeref is a good person, a good roommate and a fantastic friend." Suddenly, I didn't want to be here anymore; I felt out of my comfort zone and I wanted to be with someone I knew, someone like Zeref. When I saw Gajeel and Loke approach us amongst the others I felt even more uncomfortable so I briskly walked away, ignoring Levy's call and apologies, and walked directly across the field where Zeref lay comfortably against a tree, wearing his usual clothing.

He looked up to me expressionlessly, but the sun caught his face in a beautiful, angelic angle and my heart fluttered as I sat next to him. I looked guiltily at the ground and unpacked the lunch he perfectly made for me in the morning, offering him a sweet that my dad used to give me all the time and I guess some ended up in my bag.

"I'm very lucky to have met you, Zeref, and I'm sorry I snapped at you earlier." I apologised after he refused my sweet. He nodded, accepting the apology, and brushed some loose dirt off of my shoulder.

"It's fine. Understand that what I say is only for your benefit and you don't have to follow what I say all the time, but what Loke did was unacceptable." His lip stiffened cynically.

"Yeah I know, I have no idea what got into him. Anyway, what's our last lesson?"

"Makarov, if you would like to speak with me, then Lucy must stay too." He ignored my comment and spoke towards an empty space, where a little figure popped out of nowhere.

"Very well, this is about what happened today," Makarov put his hands behind his back and strolled up and down repetitively, "Firstly, you were extremely reckless to have started a fight period. But with Natsu Dragneel? Both of you fighting in a small area equal complete destruction of my school and you know this. Especially since you began releasing your Deathmist which could've killed everyone, luckily, that's how I knew what was happening." He stopped pacing and looked directly at Zeref. "Such magic is so destructive because not even its creator can control it, but I'm curious because you managed to restrain it. How?" _I knew it! His screams of pain and struggle were because he was opposing this Deathmist._

"I fought it inside my mind: something I've never been able to do before. There was some sort of strength in me that I haven't felt before." Zeref confessed.

"Maybe it was the presence of someone who hasn't been with you before, perhaps they powered up your abilities to withstand it," Makarov and Zeref looked at me, causing me to be stunned to the ground. _I influenced Zeref's magical ability?_ "My hypothesis is that something about Lucy's magical aura positively contrasts with yours. This is indeed interesting and something we should look more into." Makarov concluded before leaving us alone again.

I looked at Zeref, completely puzzled but extremely anxious to know how I compliment his magic and he knew something about it, I can tell. But all he would do is innocently shrug as if he was clueless. _What is he trying to hide?_


	12. Chapter 12: Seven Years

**So excited after seeing the OVA 5 trailer for Fairy Tail! AHHH, can't wait! **

**Don't forget to vote in the poll for which characters you would like to see more often in this story- it's on my profile so vote vote vote :D**

**~I do not own Fairy Tail, sadly ;_; ~**

* * *

A thousand thoughts flood my mind like a spreading disease, jumbling my brain with useless, never-ending questions. _What could this mean?_

"Lucy, I need to ask you something..."

"Why do you always wear really heavy clothes even though it's freakishly hot?" I interrupted him absentmindedly whilst he turned to face me with a serious face.

"W-what?" He blinked, taken aback from the out-of-context question.

"You're always wearing, like, five layers of clothes and I'm just wondering how you're not melting already?" I explained myself, although I must admit: it wasn't an appropriate question where I could've asked something much more helpful in the topic. He shook his head and stood up, then reached out his right hand so that his palm was exposed into the sun's light.

"I can't feel warmth, that's why," He spoke softly, "for seven years I haven't felt the heat from the sun."

"What do you mean? How?" Suddenly, I felt overwhelming sorrow for him. To be unable to feel the heat on a summer's day for seven years straight –yet witness everyone else enjoy it- must make him feel very isolated and abstract.

"When I was nine, I successfully used Deathmist, successfully meaning that I killed someone," he solemnly bunched his hand and snatched it back to his body, "and ever since then, I've been cursed with a disability to feel heat. But I must ask something of you..."

"GRAY, put your clothes back on!" I heard Levy shouted from afar, grabbing the attention of everyone in the massive field.

"Gosh, that is just unsightly..." Loke added.

"Gray-sama has such a good body, woww!" Juvia screamed zealously.

When I stood up to see the scene I saw that Natsu and Gray were facing each other with both fists shrouded in flames or icicles, looking as if they were ready to rip each other's head off, however Gray was stripped down to his birthday suit and did not even notice until Levy pointed it out which especially caught the attention of all the girls, who began shrieking excitingly. I rolled my eyes as most of them had hearts in their eyes and excited reactions towards Gray's nudity, all I really wanted to see was if they were actually going to fight.

"Are fights, like, a daily occurrence here?" I turned around and asked Zeref, who looked very impatient to do something but I don't know what.

"Yes, we at Fairy Tail Academy are well-known for destruction. We're officially labelled the 'Troublesome School' by others, but I think it's what makes us the best out of them all. You know, the Academy has won all the YGMG ever since it was created." Zeref was back to comfortably leaning against the tree, so I decided to join him and sit next to him again.

"Wow, I-I'm pretty shocked that I actually got in considering I don't even have any magic. But what's the YGMG?" I asked him.

"It's like the Grand Magic Games but Academies compete against each other instead of guilds, it's an abbreviation for the Young Grand Magic Games," his attention was taken by a buzzing bumblebee which began flying near his nose and he looked at it with crossed eyes, then it landed on his nose. He slowly placed his index finger next to it until it eventually crawled onto his finger and scuttled up and down his hand, but as soon as Zeref tried to extend his hand forward it flew off, he sighed.

"Animals seem to take a liking to Shadow Walkers... strange..." He wondered, preoccupied within his own thoughts. "Actually, the YGMG start in a few weeks time and you should begin considering which competitions you'll take part in but do not fret: you don't have to use magic in some of the games. Such as the advanced mathematics event which have become quite popular in the last few years, I'm sure you can partake in that." He remarked as if he was an official advertiser of the event.

"Oh cool, it'd be nice to support my school!" I noticed he began looking at me with a serious expression, "What is it? Is there something on my face?" However, before I could rub my face to brush off the hypothetical stain, he lunged his arms forwards and placed his hands flat down onto my temples and closed his eyes in deep concentration.

At first, I screamed at the sudden movement from Zeref but I soon realised that he was doing exactly what Gajeel tried to do, and I had no idea why. Suddenly, his eyes flickered open and he looked shocked then leapt back so forcefully that he fell onto his back and landed on his elbows.

"What-what happened? What did you do?" My voice shakily asked him as he began to recollect himself and straightened his back.

"Nothing, I've got to go." He seemed distracted within himself and hurriedly walked away.

"No! You're going to explain to me what just happened and you're going to do it now," I shouted at him and stood up, watching him walk to the door, "answer me!" I yelled hoarsely at him, with my arms flinging in frustration. He did not even turn back.

* * *

Once again, I was left by myself from Zeref and despite the inviting looks Levy and her group would give me, I pretend as if I hadn't seen them and waited against the old, lumbering tree in case Zeref would walk out of those doors within the last 20 minutes of lunch. He didn't.

Suddenly, Natsu was flying at lightning speed straight towards me and tackled me to the ground where we both faceplanted the grass. Already, I was constructing the angry rant I'd yell at him but he stood up unharmed, not even noticing me, and faced Gray, who thankfully had his school trousers back on but was still topless.

"Hah! Is that the best you can do, Gray, that was the weakest punch I've ever taken." He shouted confidently, then pounced forwards with enflamed fists and punched Gray back, who tried to quickly block it with an ice shield however Natsu's blow easily vanquished it, shattering it into a million shards of tiny ice. They began fighting and swapping powerful punches, each of them taking every hit as if it didn't affect them, with Gajeel looking entertained at the two wizards duelling. I noticed Levy was next to him, trying to demand something at him, but he seemed to be bluntly ignoring her.

Everyone on the field looked as uninterested as Gajeel in the fight. Erza was eating some strawberry cake in the shade of the maple tree and Juvia was trying to beg Gray not fight and clinging onto his legs, claiming that 'she doesn't want to see her Gray get covered in cuts,' but he brushed her off like an irritating mosquito and continued the fight.

That was until Loke appeared at my side, where I was still on the ground in an angry shock, looking very concerned at me.

"Are you okay, Lucy? I told them that they shouldn't be rough-playing around the presence of ladies, they can be such brutes sometimes," Loke smiled sweetly down at me and offered me his hand to stand up.

"Thanks." I accepted and he gently pulled me up to my feet.

"Now, excuse me for a moment as I'll stop this fight, I think we've had enough entertain for today." He walked up to the two squabbling boys, who were throwing insults at each other, then placed his hands together where a blinding light ignited in between his palms and it grew and grew until he finally released a beam of light, aiming it at Natsu and Gray.

It was so strong that even looking at it from a far away distance made my eyes burn so I turned away. When I looked back, Natsu and Gray both were shouting angrily and laid on the floor, covering their eyes, whilst Loke stood in the middle of them, looking smugly down at them.

As I looked around, Gajeel seemed to have disappeared and Juvia was mourning over the fallen Gray, whilst Erza and Levy were standing at Natsu's side with patronizing eyes. I walked up to them, overhearing their conversation.

"That was a total overkill, you know." Erza raised an eyebrow at the proud-faced Loke.

"I don't care, anything to show my Lucy my power, I want her to know what I'd do for her." He dramatically gestured where a rose appeared in his right hand from out of nowhere. I blushed when I heard that, it was one of the most romantic things anyone has ever said about me and despite the fact that he tried to kiss me before, I felt strangely delighted by this.

"Hi guys." I smiled and pretended as if I hadn't eavesdropped into that little snippet of information, and was friendly greeted by everyone, including Natsu and Gray who made a quick recovery and stood up as soon as I arrived. They seemed to be looking at my bruises on my neck but I brushed off their glances.

"Hiya Luce, did you see me? I was about to annihilate Gray, like I do all the time," Natsu crossed his arms and closed his eyes, readying for my 'praise'. In fact, all he received was a scoff from the cool and collected Gray and a final punch which landed him on the ground again.

"Why you little-" Natsu bunched his fists and faced Gray who began eagerly retaliating, waiting for another fight, but before anything could happen: Erza became angry.

"Will you stop fighting for one second? Did that beam of light not go through your thick heads? Cut it out!" Just her raising her voice made them hug each other in complete fear and they began nervously shaking like a leaf.

"I'm sorry!" They exaggeratedly apologised, near at tears.

I began uncontrollably laughing, much to the surprise of everyone. I held my belly and fell over from the pain of laughing so much. This group is just perfect, everyone contrasts with each other in a weird, ridiculous way but I can guess that every day gets more and more interesting in their lives.

"Hey, what's so funny?" Gray looked at me suspiciously.

"Y-you, everyone." I could only manage those words before I began chortling again. I think they somehow caught on and began smiling with me.

Then the bell rung, so everyone began crowding around the only back entrance so I reluctantly got up to join the crowd and I felt a petite hand on my shoulder.

"Lucy, hi, have you signed up for anything in the YGMG?" Levy smiled up at me, the rest of the group seemed to of disappeared within the crowd of students. I shook my head. "Do you want to join Freed Justine and me in the Elite Mathematics Tournament? I'm sure with you on the team we'll win." She smiled innocently at me and I couldn't help but desperately want to show off my maths skills in front of the whole school, to show off that I may seem like some helplessly dumb blonde but I'm, in fact, smart.

"Of course, it'll be fun! Who's Freed Justine?" I asked since his name seemed familiar but I couldn't exactly remember who he was.

"He's this mega-smart guy in the year above, completely addicted to solving equations but he's won Fiore's Best Young Mathematician three years in a row." Levy searched the crowd and eventually pointed towards a tall, slim handsome boy with very long, lime-green hair and a side-fringe with dark blue eyes which had a little black birthmark underneath his left one.

I now remembered who he was, the infamous Freed Justine: the youngest person ever to win the BYM award and the longest to keep it, he is my idol! But I never knew he went to this school.

"However, the other Academies now have teams of four so we have to find another teammate, so maybe you can help with that?" We were now the last people on the field and it seemed eerily quiet.

"I think I have an idea of who could enter it." I tried to say mysteriously, but Levy instantly caught on.

"Please don't say you mean Zeref." She rolled her eyes and sighed disapprovingly.

"I don't see what your problem is with him, Levy, he's a wonderful person." No matter how much I try persuading her it seemed she would always think otherwise.

"Lucy, you-you just don't know what he's done to some people, especially Gajeel and Natsu." Tears began swelling up in her red eyes.

"What'd he do?" Suddenly, flashbacks of Zeref looking possessed and the suffocating screams of the men he killed flooded through my mind, and I realised: maybe he isn't exactly the person I think he is.

"Seven years ago, there was a parents evening where Zeref's, Natsu's, Gajeel's, Laxus' and this girl in the year below parents were talking about whether it was safe or not for Zeref to be in this school, but then he lost control and..." She began sobbing so I put my arm around her and lead her to a bench so she could sit down. I have a bad feeling I already knew the conclusion to this story. "He killed their parents, Lucy, just like that! It was a tragedy but for some stupid reason Makarov accepted him in the Academy."

Deep in my mind, I kind of already knew that Zeref had killed others using that mist of his, but he killed a roomful of people, not just any people, _parents _of kids in this school... I just don't know what to think anymore.

* * *

**I'll have a little voting thing in the reviews- which perspective would you like to see in the next chapter? Continue with Lucy and Levy conversation or go to a very rare point-of-view: Zeref? **


	13. Chapter 13: Nostalgia

**New chapter, I am soo sorry that this chapter took so long to update, I have a lot of reasons but I won't name them all, just EXAMS. GRR.**

** Don't forget to review any ideas, improvements etc. Hope you enjoy reading this.**

**~I do not own Fairy Tail, sadly ;_; ~**

**Zeref P.O.V**

I need to warn Makarov, not only am I an advantage for the Ultimanious Force's plans, but I have an awful feeling that Lucy could be too. I need to hurry. However, taunting my every move, a dark voice appeared during my train of thoughts and cackled loudly.

"I see that's gotten you riled up, Zeref. I don't see how it is a bad thing: having more allies is better for our existence, don't you agree?" He churlishly added. _Not him again._ I could feel my heart defeat to his words and my head began being clustered with more and more voices, persuading me into the monster they want me to become.

"Get out of my head!" I screamed as I clenched my temples and pressed hard, trying to numb the overpowering sensation of evil.

"Impossible, we ARE you, if we go so do you, stupid boy." It hissed and with one last blow it overtook my body. All I could do now was witness what dreadful atrocities it will commit posing as myself, with no way of stopping it until it tires from energy. Please, I beg, may no one come to harm this time.

"Hey, are you alright? I heard screaming," The overweight janitor, Droy, waddled up from behind me. My body turned around to face him, who used to have a concerned face sprinkled in cake crumbs, but now was planted with a sour glare. "Oh, it's you," He turned away to the back door of the kitchen, with me unintentionally following him in.

"Stop, you obese knave!" I could hear my own voice shout at the now-terrified man, but it was clouded in a harsh, demonic overtone. Droy turned around and tried to cover something behind him on the stainless steel counter. I expected fright however he displayed an angry face.

"What, are you going to kill me like you did with all those people?" He shouted at me, which made me choke with sadness and terrible nostalgia of strangled screams, but all it made me reply to that was a cruel cackle.

"Perhaps, if my magic can even penetrate through those immense layers of fat you call a body," My legs unwillingly stepped towards him and despite my resistant shouts, I still moved my body forwards and gathered a sphere of shadow around my fists.

"Kill me, I don't care. Ever since you took away my only friend, I just don't care about my existence anymore," His voice broke as his eyes flooded with tears and my arms rose to strike his still body, but I lowered them and smirked.

"No, I don't think this kind of quick death is pleasurable enough. I will suck the life out of you slowly and witness you suffocate in the shadow," I began to release Deathmist from my body. _No! Stop it at once. Please don't make me harm him, please! _ I tried banging out of the constrictive bubble I was imprisoned in inside my own body, however it was no use. No matter how hard I persevered to escape, it still trapped me.

Suddenly, a large hand grasped around my whole body and pulled me backwards and away from Droy, who was thankfully safe and unharmed. I heard Master Makarov scream in pain from the life-absorbing shadow which attacked his arm but he just tightened his grip.

"Master Makarov, no!" Finally, I spoke words which I was not forced to say, but the cloud lingered as I hadn't recollected the whole control of my body.

"Zeref, control it now. Do as I say!" He demanded. Whilst my Deathmist seemed to not of affected him yet, he displayed an agonised, frustrated face and stared at me.

"I can't, I can't! You have to let me go Master. I don't want to hurt you as well!" I cried and began weakly hitting his wrist, but something made me sharply turn my head and I began choking to avoid him overtaking my voice.

"All apologies for breaking up this heart-wrenching moment," He growled, "but I have some destruction to do."

Yet, Master had done something I'd never expect him to do. He threw me against the wall, where I landed on my back and my head snapped backwards from the pressure and hit the hard surface. My vision became blurry and I fell to the floor, unable to differentiate up or down, left to right; everything seemed to be abnormally shaped and coloured.

For a split second I felt refreshed. I felt reincarnated with no troublesome weight on his shoulders or a murderous stamp on his forehead, and it felt absolutely ethereal. I saw a beautiful woman in front of me, standing proudly next to a kind-hearted, forgiving man, who had a familiar boy lying on his shoulders, and they all looked at me invitingly. A tear strolled down my cheek as I remember this halcyon. My family and I, when everything was enjoyable and all my demons were unknown to me.

_"Zeref, hunny, do you know what today is?" _I finally heard my mother's angelic, soothing voice and closed my eyes to absorb a sound I've been yearning to hear again, just one more time.

_"It's my birthday!" _A squeaky voice replied with excitement.

_"Exactly, champ, and we're going to order your most favourite meal, you remember what that is, don't you?"_ My kind, gentle-hearted father cooed to the boy who began impatiently waiting on his shoulders.

_"Pepperoni pizza with extra, extra pepperoni and bacon! Oh, oh and chocolate ice cream with sprinkles!" _I tipped my head and lifted one side of my mouth, admiring my adorable overexcited attitude towards food, but my lips began wobbling. This was the night.

_"But first, you have to go to a meeting with all those stuffy parents and teachers, be a strong little man, alright?" _My dad tousled my hair and took me off my shoulders.

_"Are you sure we should bring him with us?"_ My fair and smart mother whispered to my dad, to which he nodded; if only he hadn't.

Time skipped forward and the whole room was sitting on chairs in a circle, with all glaring eyes directed on me.

_"He's a demon who should be locked up away from people, especially away from a school of children!" _A father of a child from another school I hadn't met shouted at my dad, who tried to keep a stern face. I was confused, I didn't know what everyone was talking about, I certainly didn't do anything wrong!

_"That is a horrible word to describe my son, Skiadrum!"_ My father growled behind his teeth.

_"It may be horrible, but it's accurate," _

_"That's it, I'm tired of everyone accusing Zeref of evilness, he hasn't done anything wrong! Look at him, don't you see an innocent boy the same age as everyone else's sons and daughters, how is he any different from them?"_ My father stood up and yelled, something I had never seen him do before. This caused uproar in the room, as everyone was arguing with each other, mostly aiming insults at my dad.

I began crying and cradling myself into a tight ball on the chair, trying to make everything stop and go away, but then my father recklessly punched Skiadrum, who then made all the rest of the fathers attack my dad.

_"Stop it!"_ I shrieked and unexpectedly released my first Deathmist, which would've ended up killing everyone in the room if a beautiful, blonde woman, who looked a lot like Lucy, didn't activate a shield, protecting everyone in the room from it. Everyone, except my own parents, who limply fell to the floor after contact with my mist and all life was sucked out of them within a split second.

"NOOO!" I screamed at the scene, which stopped as soon as realisation of killing my parents hit my younger self, and then it began fading away. I reached out for it, however it dissolved in-between my fingers like ash in the wind. "I'm sorry, please come back to me!" I repeatedly wailed and cradled myself on the floor, hopelessly crying. Makarov walked up to me, looked down and sighed.

"I saw the flashback, Zeref, and no doubt do I feel sorrow for your loss, but you cannot do this," he waved his arm to Droy, who laid in the corner dumbfounded, "You must learn to control this magic but know that I will always be there to help you." He offered his now normal-sized hand and I accepted with a melancholic smile.

"Master, there is something I need to tell you." I sniffed.

"I'm afraid I have some news too, it's about what happened on Saturday."


End file.
